The Comedy of Dante Alighieri : Hell

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THE COMEDY OF DANTE ALIG-
HIERI RENDERED INTO ENGLISH
BY SIR EDWARD SULLIVAN, BART.

HELL.

' Vagliami il lungo studio e il grande amore
Che m' ban fatto cercar lo tuo volume."

Inf. I. 83.

T r»"Krr»r\'M . ttt t ic\t crrkr-v cTVTv_Tii/rk

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A. G. O'S.

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PREFACE.

HE following rendering is an attempt
to put Dante's immortal Comedy
before English readers in a form
which — allowing for differences of
idiom — accurately represents the original, without
entirely sacrificing the poetical spirit which is so
marked a characteristic of the work.

The prose versions which have hitherto been
published — though few in number — seem to have
been framed rather as a help to students of the
Italian text, than with a view to give the English
reader any insight of a connected kind into Dante's
Poem. I know of no prose rendering in our
language which is throughout intelligible without
the aid of the original text. The best of them by
far — ^John Carlyle's Inferno — rises, no doubt, at
times above the level of a "crib"; but, taken as a

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whole, it possesses, in common with the others,
the fault to which I have referred.

Touching the many metrical versions with which
we are familiar, I would only wish to say, that
I am of those who think that no rendering of
The Comedy into English verse can give even the
most shadowy idea of the old Italian Poem. The
" terza rima " of the original is impossible with-
out its leading feature, the double ending; and
the dissyllabic rhymes in our language are not
sufficiently numerous for a serious work of so
great a length. Byron, too, has shown us, in his
Don /uan, that this particular form of ending is
more adapted to the lines of a work of a lighter
kind.

I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to couch
my translation in the simple and solemn language
with which all readers of our Bible have been
long familiar. Its archaic style would appear, for
obvious reasons, to be peculiarly appropriate to
the rendering of such a work as Dante's master-
piece ; for, while prose in form, it seems to suggest,
rather than to repel, the introduction of expres-
sions of a poetical character.

The text which I have used is that of the
Italian edition of Eugenio Camerini, published by
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E. Sonzongno (Milan, 1888), which is, in the
main, founded on that of Witte ; a few variations
are, however, introduced by Camerini from the two
editions of the Academicians Delia Crusca.

I have not thought it necessary to add the usual
explanatory notes, which are to be found in almost
every translation.

I have adopted the title given by Dante him-
self to the Poem, calling it The Comedy, in prefer-
ence to the name by which it came to be known
in later times.

Edward Sullivan.

32, FiTzwiLLiAM Place,
Dublin, 1893.

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tammummsaium^

HELL.

CANTO I.

IDWAY on the journey of our life I
found myself within a darksome
wood, for the right way was lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to
tell how wild and rough and unyield-
ing was that wood, which even in remembering
bringeth back my fear. So fraught with bitter-
ness it is, that death is little more so. But that I
may set down the good I found there, I will make
mention of the other things that I discerned there.
I know not rightly how to tell the manner of my
entrance ; so filled was I with drowsiness just at the
moment when I strayed from the true path. But
after that I was come nigh unto the foot of a
hill, there, where the valley ended, that had filled
my heart with piercing terror, I looked above
me, and beheld its shoulders already bathed in
the rays of the planet that leadeth all men straight
on every road. Then, in some measure, was set
at rest the fear, that had kept abiding in the
hollow of my heart throughout the night that I

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had passed in such affliction. And as he, who
with laboured breath hath escaped to shore from
out the sea, turneth him to the perilous flood,
and gazeth ; even in such wise did my mind, that
still was flying, turn back to look again upon the
pass which never mortal yet hath left alive.

After that I had rested my weary frame, I took
my way again along the lonely steep, in such wise
that the firm-set foot was always lowest. And
lo ! even at the first rise of the slope, a leopard,
light of limb and very agile, clad in a spotted
hide : nor ever moved she from before my face,
but barred my way so doggedly, that I had often
turned me to go back.

The time was at the opening of the morning ;
and the sun was climbing up, attended by the
stars that were beside him when Divine Love first
waked to motion those things of loveliness; so
that the bright skin of the beast, the hour, and the
pleasant season, bade me to hope for good; yet
not so, but that the sight of a lion, which met
my gaze, made me to fear. He seemed to come
against me with head raised high, and urged by
ravening hunger; so that the air appeared to
tremble at his presence. A she-wolf too, that in
her leanness seemed filled full of craving — and
many a people ere now hath she made to dwell in
misery — she brought such hopelessness upon me
with the terror of her aspect, that I despaired of
making the ascent. And even as he whose heart
is set on gain, when that the hour is come that

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causeth him to lose, sorroweth in his inmost
thoughts, and is ill at ease ; even to such plight
that restless beast reduced me, that, coming
against me, little by little drave me back to
where the sun is silent.

Whilst I was hurrying to the place below,
there loomed upon my sight one who seemed
voiceless by reason of long silence. When I
beheld him in the vasty wilderness, I cried unto
him : " Have pity on me, whatever thou mayest
be — or spirit, or man in verity."

And he made answer to me : "I am no man, man
have I been long since ; and Lombards were my
parents, and, by their place of birth, Mantuans
both. I saw the light first under JuHus, late though
it was; and spent my days at Rome under the
good Augustus, what time the false and fabulous
gods held sway. A poet was I, and of the just son
of Anchises was my song, who came from Troy
after proud Ilium was laid waste in fire. But
thou, why turnest thou again to such dis-
quietude ? Why dost thou not ascend the delect-
able mountain, which is the cause and source of
all delight r

"ArtJ:hou then that Virgil, that fountain-
head which poureth abroad so brimming a
flood of eloquence ?" I answered him with
looks abashed. " Glory and light of other lords
of song, may my hours of study, and the mighty
love that made me search thy volume, stand me
in need ! Thou art my master and the author

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of my choosing : thou art he alone from whom
I taught me the goodly style that hath brought
honour to me. Behold the beast in fear of which
I turned me back ; rescue me from her, fame-
favoured bard, for she setteth my veins and pulses
trembling."

" Thou must needs take another road," he
answered, when that he saw me weep, " if thou
desirest to flee from this wild place : because
this beast, by reason of which thou criest aloud,
suffereth none to come her way, but hindereth
so rudely, that she slayeth them. So baneful and
accursed is her nature, that she can never glut
her ravening greed ; and after feeding she is
hungrier than before. Many are the living things
with which she mateth, and more there still must
be, or ever the Greyhound come, that will cause
her to die in agony. He will not eat of earth
nor pelf, but of wisdom, love and worth ; and his
nation shall be between Feltro and Feltro. Of
that low-lying Italy shall he the saviour be, in
whose defence fell chaste Camilla, Euryalus and
Turnus, and Nisus, wounded sore. Through every
city shall he give chase to her, till he have driven
her into Hell again, whence Envy first unloosed
her. Wherefore in thy behoof I think and deem
it well, that thou shouldst follow me ; and I will
be thy guide, and lead thee out from this place
through the eternal realms, where thou shalt
hear shriekings of despair, shalt see the ancient
spirits in their sorrowing, so that each crieth

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CANTO II.

HE day was waning, and the dusky air
was loosing from their toils the living
things that are on earth ; and I, all
lonely, was making me ready to brave
the trials of the way and the struggle
with compassion, which memory will retrace, that
erreth not.

O Muses, O heaven-sent intellect, lend me now
your aid ! O Memory, that hast set down that
which I saw, here will thy lordly power be manifest.
" Poet, that guidest me," I began, ** look thou to
my strength, if that it may suffice, or ever thou
dost entrust me to the deep defile. Thou it is
that sayest, that Silvius' sire, clothed albeit in
decay, made his way even unto the realm of the
immortals, and tarried there possessed of mortal
understanding. And therefore if the Enemy of
all evil in this was gracious, mindful of the mighty
issue that should come forth from him, his per-
sonage, and his power; to man of intellect it
seemeth not unmeet: for in the highest heaven
he was ordained to be the father of all-glorious
Rome and of her empire : both which, as I

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would fain speak truth, were established for the
holy place, where sitteth the inheritor of mighty
Peter. By this same journey, for which thou
givest him honour, he learned of things that
proved to him the sources of his triumph, and
of the mantle of the popes. Afterwards, went
there thither the Chosen Vessel, to bring back
sweet assurance to the faith which is the ^thresh-
old of the way that leadeth to salvation. But I,
why should I go thither ? or who alloweth it ?
iEneas am I not, nor am I Paul : nor I myself,
nor any others deem me worthy of it. Where-
fore if I resign myself to go, I tremble lest my
going be but foolhardy. Thou art wise, and dost
more fully understand than I can speak."

And as one who wisheth not that which he
wished, and for new fancies changeth his resolve,
so that he turns him wholly from his undertaking ;
even in such state was I on that dark slope ; for,
while I pondered, I brought to naught the enter-
prise, that was at first so readily embraced.

" If I have rightly understood thy speech,"
answered the shade of him of mighty mind, " thy
spirit is assailed by cowardice, which oftentimes
perplexeth man, so that it turneth him away from
honoured enterprise, even as uncertain sight
turneth a beast when it is growing dark. That
thou mayest free thee from this apprehension, I
will tell thee wherefore I came, and what I heard at
the first moment that waked my pity for thee. I
was among the spirits in suspense, and a lady

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called to me, so blessed and so beauteous, that I
besought her to command me. Her eyes shone
brighter than the star, and sweetly and softly she
began her speech to me, in her own language, even
as the angels speak : ' O gracious spirit, Mantuan-
born, whose fame abideth still upon the earth,
and will abide unto all time : one whom I love,
albeit unloved by fortune, is so impeded in his
way upon the untrodden slope, that he hath turned
him back in terror ; and, from what I have heard
of him in heaven, I fear he may be even now so
far astray, that I may have stirred too late to lend
him aid. Up then, and with thy eloquent speech,
and with what else thou hast meet for his release,
help him in such wise that I may be thereby com-
forted. I am Beatrice who cause thee to go. I come
from a place whither I would fain return. Love it
is that sent me forth, the love that urgeth me to
speak. When I shall come into the presence of my
Lord, I will oft speak to Him in praise of thee.'

"Then was she silent, and thereon I began:
* Lady of virtue, through which alone the race
of man excelleth all that is contained within
the heaven of lesser circles : so welcome to me is
thy bidding, that to obey, were it even now accom-
plished, would seem to me too late ; there needs
no further to unfold that thou desirest But tell
me the reason, why thou dost not disdain to come
down here to this low centre, from out the spacious
realm whither thou yearnest to return.'

" * Since thou desirest to know so fully, briefly
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will I tell thee,' she made answer to rne, * why I
have no fear of entering here. It were right to
fear only those things that have the power of
working evil to others ; no others are to be feared,
having no element of dread within them. Such
am I created by God, in His mercy, that your
affliction toucheth me not, and the flame of this
burning is powerless against me. In heaven
there is a high-born lady who is moved so to
compassion at the trial to which I send thee,
that on high she softeneth to relenting the judg-
ment that yieldeth not. She called Lucia in her
entreaty, and said : ** Now is thy faithful one in
need of thee, and I commend him to thee." Lucia,
foe to every cruel thought, uprose, and came to
where I was, as I was seated with the aged
Rachel. She said : " Beatrice, true praise of God,
why lendest thou not thine aid to him that loved
thee so, who for thy sake forsook the common
crowd ? Hearest thou riot the piteous tone of
his complaining ? Seest thou not the death that
warreth with him by the river, over which ocean
hath never boast?" Never were men on earth
so swift to seek their good, or shun their hurt,
as I was, when these words were uttered, in
coming down from my abiding - place of bliss,
trusting in thy pure eloquence, that is an honour
unto thee and eke to them whose ears have heard
it.' After that she had said this to me, in tears
she turned her gleaming eyes away from me;
whereby she made me still more eager to come :

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and I have come to thee even as she wished ; I
have rescued thee from the presence of the beast
that drave thee from the straight way to the
mountain beautiful. What is it then? Where-
fore> wherefore tarriest thou ? Why nestleth in
thy heart such cowardice ? Why art thou not
possessed of daring and of courage ; since three
such blessed damosels concern them for thee in
the court of heaven, and my own speech giveth
thee promise of so much good ?"

As flowers, bowed low and closed by the frost
of night, uplift them opening wide upon their
stems, what time the sun hath shed his radiance
on them ; even so was it with me, in my ebbing
valiancy : and such a flood of noble courage came
streaming to my heart, that I began as one whose
fetters are unloosed. " O clothed with pity she,
that came to succour me ! And gracious thou,
that didst give heed so speedily unto the words
of truth that she addressed to thee ! Thou, by
thy words, hast inflamed my heart with such
eagerness to go, that I am turned even to my
first resolve. On then; for both have but one
wish : thou art my guide, thou art my lord, and
thou my master."

So spake I unto him, and as he passed along, I
entered on the deep and woody path.

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CANTO III.

HROUGH me lieth the way to the
city of tribulation; through meheth
the way to the pain that hath no
end ; through me lieth the way
amongst the lost. Justice it was
that moved my august maker ; God's puissance
reared me, wisdom from on high, and first-born
love. Before me created things were not, save
those that are eternal; and I abide eternally.
Leave every hope behind, ye that come within."

These words I saw writ in sombre tint high on
a gate. Wherefore I said : ** Master, their mean-
ing I find it hard to comprehend." And he, as
one that knew, made answer : " Here must one
leave behind all distrust ; here must all cowardice
be dead. We are come to the place where I
have told thee thou shouldst look upon the sorrow-
ing multitudes who have lost the happiness which
intellect hath power to provide." And laying his
hand on mine, with joyful countenance, whereat
I was assured, he led me in to look upon the
things man hath not seen.

Here sighs and lamentations and loud cries re-
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sounded through the starless air, wherefore at the
first I wept to hear them. Tongues of many nations,
utterings of horror, words of tribulation, tones of
anger, voices loud and hoarse, and amongst them
the sounds of hands, made an uproar that circleth
unceasingly in that ever darksome air, even as
the sand when the hurricane bloweth. And I,
whose head was girt about with terror, exclaimed :
" Master, what is this that I hear ? What multi-
tude is this that seemeth so overcome by agony ?"

And he made answer to me : " Such hapless state
the joyless souls of those sustain, who lived their
lives untouched by either infamy or praise. They
are huddled together with that base crew of
angels who rose not in revolt, nor kept their
faith with God, but were for self alone. Heaven
drave them out that its brightness might re-
main undimmed ; nor doth the depth of Hell
receive them, for the damned would glory over
them."

And I : " Master, what troubleth them so sore,
that they are forced to wail in such loud tone ?"

He answered : " I will tell thee of it very briefly.
These have no hope of death, and their blind
life is so degraded that they are envious of every
other lot. The world suffereth not tidings of
them to exist. Mercy and Justice hold them in
scorn : let us not speak of them, but look, and
pass away."

And I, who looked, beheld a flag, that whirling
round, sped along so swiftly that it seemed to me

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to scorn all rest. And close behind it came so
long a train of people, that I could not have be-
lieved that death had unmade so many. When
I had recognised some amongst them, I saw
and knew the shade of him who through lack of
spirit had made the great refusal. Straightway
I understood, and felt assured that this was the
dastard crowd, hateful to God and to His enemies.
These abandoned creatures, who never were
possessed of life, were naked, and sorely stung by ^'
hornets and by ^wasps that were there. These
made their faces stream with blood, which, ming-
ling with their tears, was caught by loathsome
snakes about their feet. And then as I turned to
look beyond, I saw crowds upon the bank of a
mighty river, wherefore I said : " Master, vouch-
safe to me to know who they are, and what in-
stinct maketh them so eager to pass over, as,
through the dim light, I discern they are.*' And
he made answer to me : ** All will be told thee
when we come to stay our steps on the gloomy
shore of Acheron."

And then with eyes bent low in shame, fearing
my speech might have offended him, I held my
peace until we reached the river.

And lo ! an old man, hoary with ancient locks,
draweth towards us in a boat, crying out : '* Curse
on you, sinful souls ! Never hope to see the sky !
I am coming to ferry you to the other shore, into
the darkness that is for ever, into flame and into
frost. And thou that standest there, living soul,

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bet^e thee from these that are dead." But when
>vhe saw that I did not betake me from them, he
said : ** By other ways, by other havens, must thou
approach the shore — not here — to get thee over.
There needs a lighter keel to bear thee." And
my guide said to him : *' Charon, trouble not thy-
self : thus is it willed, where what is willed hath
power to be accomplished ; and ask no more."

Straightway the shaggy jaws of the boatman
of the darksome tarn were motionless, around
whose eyes were circling flames. But the spirits
there, jaded and raimentless as they were, changed
colour and gnashed their teeth, soon as they heard
the cruel words. They fell to blaspheming God and
their parents, the human race, the place, the time,
the seed of their sowing and of their births.
Then in all their thronging crowds, the while they
loudly wailed, they gathered them back together
to the accursed shore, that awaiteth everyone that
hath no fear of God. The demon Charon, with
eyes like burning coal, beckoning them, collecteth
all: whoever loitereth, him smiteth he with his
oar.

And as the leaves drop off in autumn-time, one
fast behind the other, until the branch restoreth
all its spoils unto the earth ; in like fashion do
the sin-cursed seed of Adam, one by one, fling
themselves from off that bank, as the signal is
given, even as a bird that answereth its call. So
pass they over the dark wave, and or ever they
come to touch the other shore, once more

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another throng is gathered here. " My son/' my
gracious Master said, " those that pass from life
under God's wrath must needs foregather here
from every land ; and they are eager to cross the
stream, for God's justice goadeth them so, that
fear is turned to yearning. Never a guiltless soul
passeth this way ; and therefore, if Charon crieth
out against thee, well mayest thou comprehend
the import of his speech."

These words being uttered, the dim-lit plain
trembled so violently, that the remembrance of
my alarm even now bathes me with sweat. The
tear -steeped earth belched forth a blast, and
flashed with ruddy light, which overpowered all
my senses ; and I dropped down like one on whom
sleep seizeth.

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CANTO IV.

HEAVY peal of thunder broke the
deep sleep within my brain, so that
I trembled as one that is awakened
by violence. And, standing up, I
moved my rested eyes around, and
looked with steady gaze that I might know the
place wherein I was. True it is, that I found
myself upon the brink of the chasm of the valley
of tears, which gathereth into a thunder the
lamentation that hath no end. So dark, so deep,
so cloud-wrapped was it, that, for all my peering
into its depths, I could discern naught in it.

" Now let us go below into the sightless world,"
began the poet, ashy pale ; " I will be first, and
thou shalt be second."

And I, who had remarked his colour, said :
" How shall I come, if fear possesseth thee, that
art wont to be my comfort when in doubt ?"

And he made answer to me : " The agony of

those below doth paint upon my face the traces

of compassion, which thou dost take for fear.

Let us away, for the long road urgeth us to haste."

Thus moved he on, and thus he made me pass

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within the outmost circle that goeth round the
chasm. Here, so far as I could tell by listening,
there was no wailing, but sighs only, making the
air to tremble without ceasing; and this arose
from the misery, albeit uncaused by torture,
which the crowds felt, and they were many and
great ; babes and women and men.

My gentle Master said to me : " Thou dost not
ask what shades are these thou seest. I now
would have thee know, or ever thou goest farther,
that they have not sinned ; and though they have
good works to their account, it sufficeth not, for
they knew not baptism, which is the gateway of
the faith the which thou dost believe. And as
they were before Christ's coming, they failed to
worship God aright ; and of their number am I
myself. For shortcomings such as these, and for no
other fault, are we lost : and this our only punish-
ment, that without hope we live in yearning."

Deep sorrow seized my heart when I heard
this, for men of mighty worth I knew who were
held in suspense within that Limbo. ** Tell me,
Master mine, tell me, Sire," I began, in my eager-
ness to be assured of that faith which overcometh
all error : "Did any ever depart hence, or through
his own deserts, or through some other's inter-
cession, who was thereafter blessed ?" And he,
who understood the hidden import of my speech,
made answer : " I was but newly come into this
state, when I beheld one of mighty power come
amongst us with victory's symbols crowned. He

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led away from us the shade of our first parent, of
Abel his son, and that of Noah, of Moses the law-
giver, the obedient ; Abraham the patriarch, and
David the king, Israel with his father and with
his sons, with Rachel, too, for whom he wrought
so much, and many more; and made them
blessed : and I would have thee know that before
these no human soul attained salvation/'

We stayed not on our way for all his speaking,
but meanwhile passed along the thicket, I mean
the thicket formed of thronging spirits. Our way
was not yet far advanced beyond the crest, when
I beheld a fire whose conquering radiancy lit up a
world of darkness. Still were we distant a little
space, yet not so far but that I faintly could
discern that honoured people held the place.

" O thou, that boldest in honour every art and
science, who are these, that have such honour,
that doth distinguish them from the condition of
the rest ?"

And he made answer : ** The honoured name
whose echoes fill your life above, doth win the
meed of grace in heaven which so advanceth
them." And while he spake I heard a voice : " All
honour to the mighty bard ; his shade that was
departed, cometh again." And when the voice
was hushed to silence, I saw four mighty shades
draw near to us ; nor sad, nor joyful was their mien.

My loving Master commenced to speak : " Mark
him that beareth in his hand the sword, who
goeth before the three so like a chief. He is

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88-1 1 8] ^tll [canto IV.

Homer, the lordly lord of song : the other that
advanceth is Horace, the satirist : Ovid is the
third, and the last is Lucan. And for that each
of them shareth with me the name which the one
voice proclaimed, they do me honour, and they do
well therein."

So saw I gather there the goodly fellowship
that foUoweth that master of supreme song, who
soareth like an eagle above the rest.

When they had spoken for some little space
together, they turned to me with gesture of saluta-
tion ; and my Master smiled to see me honoured
so : and yet still higher honour did they do me,
for they numbered me with their assemblage, so
that I was a sixth amid such mighty minds.

So fared we onwards until we reached the light,
holding discourse of things, to pass which by in
silence is as well as it was well to speak them
where I was.

We drew near to a lordly castle's base, encircled
seven times with towering walls, and warded on
every side by a beauteous stream. This we passed
across, as though it had been solid land. Through
seven gates I entered with these sages ; we came
into a mead clad with fresh verdure. People were
there with eyes tranquil and full of majesty, of
great authority in their bearing : they spake but
little, with voices full of gentleness. Thus we
withdrew aside to a place spacious, bright and
lofty, so that in all their numbers they could be
seen. And right in front, on the enamelled green,

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CANTO IV.] 1?attfe*» <50mct»|| [119^51

the mighty shades were shown to me, ar having
looked on whom my heart exults within me. I
saw Electra with many companions, amongst
whom I recognised both Hector and ^Eneas, and
Caesar clad for fight, with his hawk-like eyes. I
saw Camilla and Penthesilea. Over against them
I saw the king Latinus, who sat beside Lavinia
his daughter. I saw the famous Brutus that
drave out Tarquin ; Lucretia, Julia, Martia, and
Cornelia, and unattended and apart I saw the
Saladin. After that I had raised my eyelids some-
what higher, I saw the chief of those who know>
sitting amongst a brotherhood of philosophers.
All look to him, all do him honou|^ There I saw
Socrates and Plato, who before all the others
stand closest to his side. Democritus, who
buildeth the world on chance, Diogenes, Anaxa-
goras, and Thales, Empedocles, Heraclitus and
Zeno : and I saw the worthy gatherer of the
essences, I mean Dioscorides : and I saw
Orpheus, Tully and Linus, and Seneca the
moralist : Euclid the geometrician, and Ptolo-
maeus, Hippocrates, Avicenna and Galen,
Averrhoes who made the mighty commentary. I
have no power to tell the tale of all in full, and that>
because my lengthy theme so presseth me, that
oftentimes my words fall short of what was there.
The company of six breaks into two ; by another
way my sage guide leads me forth from the
tranquil air, into the air that trembled ; and I
come into a place where is no gleam of light.

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CANTO V.

O passed I from the first circle down
into the second, which enfoldeth
lesser space, and suffering so much
the greater, that it goadeth to cries of
lamentation. There standeth Minos,
grinning in horrid fashion; in the entrance he
examineth into the transgressions, passeth judg-
ment, and sendeth to doom, even according as he
girdeth himself I mean, that when the sin-born
soul cometh before him, it standeth wholly con-
fessed ; and this searcher of sins seeth what place
in hell is meet for it : he encircleth himself with his
tail times as niany as the circles he would have it
sent down. Crowds of spirits are there at all times
standing before him : each in turn, they pass to
judgment ; they speak, they hear, and then are
they hurled down.

** O thou that comest unto the abiding-place of
sorrow," said Minos to me, when he perceived me,
leaving the doing of his dread employment, ** have
a care how thou comest in, and to whom thou
dost entrust thyself: let not the gaping of the
entrance play thee false T*

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CANTO v.] ^untt'B (ClOlm^pu [2^-51

And unto him my guide : " Wherefore dost
thou too call aloud ? Seek not to stay his fate-
appointed going : thus is it willed where what is
willed hath power to be accomplished : and ask no
more."

And now the sounds of sorrowing begin to rrnke
themselves heard : now am I come to where sore
complaining striketh on mine ear. I came into a
region where was no light ; that rang wijji moans,
even as the sea moaneth under the tempest, when
buffeted by winds in conflict. The hellish whirl-
wind, that resteth never, beareth the spirits on-
wards in its rush ; wheeling and smiting it vexeth
them. When they are come over against the
broken ground, there shrieks arise, complaining
and lamentation : there they cry aloud in impre-
cation against the power of God. I came to
know that to tortures of such a kind were doomed
sinners in the flesh, who make their better judg-
ment the thrall of lust. And as in winter time
starlings are borne on their wings, in large and
crowded flock; even so beareth this blast these
sinful spirits. Hither and thither, high and low,
it whirleth them, nor ever cometh hope of any
rest to cheer them, nor even of lesser punishment.

And as cranes speed onwards , chanting their
droning notes, shaping themselves into long file
high in air ; even in such wise saw I the shades
approaching, uttering cries of sorrow, borne on
that blast. Wherefore I said, "Who be these
folk whom the black guSt molesteth so ?"

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52-8i] ^^ll [canto v.

** The first of those concerning whom thou
wishest to have information," then made he
answer to me, " was empress of many tongues.
So wasted was she through the vice of luxury, that
in her code she made lust even as law, to rid
her of the reprobation she incurred. She is
Semiramis, who, as we read, reigned in the stead
of Ninus, and was his spouse : she ruled the land
o'er whid^ the Soldan holdeth sway. The other
is she, that love-sick did herself to death, and
broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus ; and next
them is voluptuous Cleopatra."

Helen I saw, who was the cause of such a rolling
age of suffering; and I saw the great Achilles,
whose last fight was with love. Paris and Tristan
I saw ; and more than a thousand shades he showed
me, and pointing with his finger told me their
names, whom love had severed from our life.

When I had heard my Teacher name the
dames of other days and their gallants, compas-
sion overcame me, and I became as though I
were bewildered. I began : ** Poet, fain would I
speak with yonder twain that move together and
seem to be so light upon the wind." And he made
answer to me: '*Thou wilt see when they are
nearer to us ; and do thou then implore them by
the love that leadeth them ; and they will come."

So soon as the wind drave them towards us, I
lifted up my voice : " O souls sore spent with
sorrow, approach and speak with us, an it so be
that none forbid it."

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CANTO v.] 9etntB'sk €0mttfu [82-112

As doves obedient to the call of love, with
pinions wide spread and motionless, wing their
way through air by yearning borne unto their
pleasant nest : even so came they forth from the
crowd where Dido is, drawing towards us through
the offensive air, so strong was my compassionate
appeal.

*' O living one, gracious and full of tenderness,
that through the dun air comest here to us whose
blood hath stained the earth : were but the Lord
of the universe our friend, our prayers would rise
to Him that He might send thee peace : as thou
hast shown compassion for our luckless fate. Of
whatsoever it listeth thee to hear and speak, of
that will we hear and speak, while the wind is
hushed, even as it now is. The city of my birth
sitteth by the sea, there where the Po, with all its
tribute streams, cometh down to be at rest. Love,
whose flame quickly seizeth upon the gentle heart,
enamoured him of that fair form of which I was
bereft, and the manner still afilicteth me. Love,
that from none beloved accepteth aught less than
love, took me so irresistibly with pleasing him,
that, as thou seest, it doth not leave me yet.
Love led us to one death : Cain's place of doom
?Lwaiteth him who reft us of our life."

Such words were borne to us from them*!
When I had heard those sore afflicted spirits,
I bowed my face, and held it low, until the Poet
said to me : " What dost thou ponder on ?" When
I made answer, to him, I began: **Alas! what

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1 1 3-1 34] 1|]^U [canto v.

thoughts of love, what yearning, lured them to
that unhappy pass I''

Then turned I again towards them, and spake
and began : ** Francesca, thy torment maketh me
to weep tears of pity and of sorrow. But tell me ;
in the season of your loving sighs, by what, and
in what fashion, gave you love to know desires till
then unveiled ?" And she made answer to me :
'* No deeper sorrow is, than to recall a time of
happiness, in misery's hour;* and this thy
Teacher knoweth. But if thou hast concern so
great to learn our loves' first source, I shall do
even as one that speaketh in his tears. We read
one day, to while the hour, of Lancelot, how love
enthralled him : we were alone, with never a
thought of harm. And oft and oft that reading
brought our eyes together and drave the colour to
our cheeks ; but one point, only one, it was that
overcame us. When that we came to read of how
the smiling lips he loved were kissed by lover such

* The origin of this sentiment has been generally at-
tributed to Boethius. Mr. J. C. Collins, the author of
"Illustrations to Tennyson," has, however, recently pointed
out that it is to be found in Pindar, and in a form which
shows that it had passed into a proverb even at that early
date.

^ rowr* dviapoTarop, KaXd yiy vtaaKOvr* dt'dyK^

Iktoq ix^iv "TToSa. Pyth. iv., 510-12.

If the idea be a borrowed one in Dante's case, it is pro-
bable that he took it from the Book of Wisdom, with the con-
tents of which, in its Latin form, he appears to haye been
very familiar : " Duplex enim illos acceperat taedium, et
gemitus cum memoria praeteritorum,'' xi. 13 (Vulgate).

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CANTO v.] IBetntt'Si QCum^lbii [134-142

as he, he that no more shall e'er be parted from
me, kissed my mouth trembling through. Our
Galahad was the book and he that penned it :
that day we read in it no more."

And while the one spirit spake these words, the
other wept so bitterly, that in my deep com-
passion I swooned away, as though I were dying,
and fell even as a corpse falleth.

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CANTO VI.

HEN that my sense had come again to
me, which was entranced in looking
on the misery of the two kindred
souls, that utterly bewildered me
with sadness, new tortures I see
around me and new tortured ones, howsoever I
move, and whithersoever I turn and gaze.

I am in the third circle, that of the rain that
ceaseth not, accursed, cold, and heavy : its flow-
ing and its fashion know no change. Huge hail-
drops, murky water, and snow, keep falling
through the misty atmosphere ; the soil that soaks
it in is rotting. Cerberus, the pitiless and out-
landish beast, barks in dog-like fashion through
triple throat above the souls that lie immersed
there. Red are the eyes he hath, his beard foul
and black, his belly gross, and his paws armed
with talons. He claws the shades, he flayeth and
he teareth them. The rain maketh them to howl
like dogs : of one side they make themselves a
screen for the other, and many is the time they
turn them, the godless wretches.

When Cerberus, the mighty reptile, caught
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CANTO VI.] 9ant0'0 C^m^^s [22-52

sight of us, he opened wide his mouth and showed
his fangs ; nor ever a limb he had but quivered.
And my Guide spread wide his hands ; he took
up earth, and with full palms hurled it into his
ravenous jaws. And as the dog, that barking
craveth for food, and is appeased as he devoureth
the meal, busied and battling only to gulp it
down ; so was it with the foul faces of the demon
Cerberus, who thundereth above the spirits so,
that they would fain be deaf.

We passed across the shades whom the heavy
rain oppresseth, placing our feet upon their
shadowy forms that wear the shape of bodies.
They lay upon the earth in all their multitudes,
save one that raised himself into a sitting posture
the moment he beheld us pass in front of him.
" O thou, that through this hell art being led," he
said to me, " recognise me, if thou hast the wit.
Thou wast born or ever I was unborn."

And I made answer to him : " The misery that
possesseth thee doth haply take thee from my
recollection, so that it doth not seem as though
I ever saw thee. But tell me who thou art, that
comest to be in such a place of sorrow, and under
punishment of such a kind, that if there greater
be, none is there that galleth more."

And he made answer to me : " The city, which
teemeth so with envy, that even now the sack is
full to overflowing, held me within its walls, in
the untroubled life above. You citizens, you
used to call me Ciacco : through the accursed

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53-^3] i|^n [canto vl

sin of gluttony I am rotting, as thou seest, in
the rain ; and I, unhappy spirit, am not alone^
for every one of these, for like sin, is doomed
to a like punishment;" and more he spake
not.

I made reply to him : " Ciacco, thy suffering
so sorely weigheth on me, that I am fain to weep
at it ; but tell me, if thou canst, how will it be
with the citizens of the faction-sundered city ; if
there be any just man there ? And tell me why
such discord hath assailed it."

And he made answer to me : " When the long
strife is over, they will resort to blood, and the
Forest party will drive the other forth with
mighty violence. And then, or ever three suns
rise, must the conqueror fall, and the other get
the upper hand, helped by the strength of him
who even now playeth fast and loose. For a long
space will it hold its brow uplifted, and hold the
other down with heavy weights, however it weep
thereat, and blush for shame. Two just men are
there, but none there give them heed ; pride,
envy, and avarice, are the three sparks with
which their hearts are kindled." Here brought
he to an end his melancholy speech.

And 1 said unto him : " Yet still I wish that
thou wouldst teach me, and vouchsafe unto me the
favour of further speech. Farinata and Tegghiaio,
that were so worthy; Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo
and Mosca, and others, too, whose minds were
bent on doing good, tell me where are they, and

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CANTO VI.] ^anfe> Cmn^bit [83-1 n

grant me to know them ; for a deep longing con-
straineth me to learn if heaven's sweetness be
their lot, or poisonous hell/'

And he made answer: "They are among the
blacker shades ; other sin than mine beareth
them downwards to the depths ; if thou goest
down so far, thou mayest behold them. But
when thou comest to the pleasant world above,
I pray thee bring me to men's recollection. No
more I say to thee; I answer unto thee no
more."

Then turned he his straight-set eyes askance ;
he cast a look at me and then bent his head
down, and as it sank he fell, like unto the other
sightless ones.

And my guide said to me : ** He waketh no more
until the sounding of the archangel's trumpet.
When the enemy shall come in his power, each
will find again his joyless sepulchre, will take
unto himself again his flesh and form, and hear
the sound whose echoes ring throughout eternity."

We passed along through the decaying mass
of mingled shades and rain with measured tread,
discoursing a little on the hfe to come : wherefore
I said : " Master, these tortures, will they increase
when the great doom is spoken, or will they lessen,
or continue as galling as before ?" And he made
answer to me : ** Go back upon the science thou
hast read, which would have us believe that the
more a thing is perfect, the more it feeleth
pleasure, and likewise pain. Though these cursed

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1 1 2-1 1 5] i^tU [canto VI.

souls may never come to true perfection, j'et do
they hope thereafter to attain it more than
now."

We went along that winding road, speaking of
many things the which I do not repeat ; we came
to where was the descent : there we foand Pluto
the arch-enemy.

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CANTO VII.

j|APE SATAN, pape Satan aleppe,"
Pluto began with grating voice.
And that courteous sage, who knew
all, said, that I might be comforted :
!l ** Let not thy terror give thee annoy,
for, be his power what it may, he will not stay thy
going down this rocky steep."

Then to the bloat lips turned he, and spake :
" Be still, accursed wolf; consume thyself within
with thine own rage. , Our journey to the pit is
not without good cause ; so is it willed on high
where Michael wreaked vengeance on the re-
bellious herd."

As sails, swelled by the breeze, drop down in
tangled heap, what time the mast is riven ; so
dropped to earth the pitiless beast. Thus went
we down to the fourth hollow, advancing farther
on the melancholy strand, that gathereth into its
folds the sin of all the world.

Ah me ! Justice of God, that heapeth up un-
heard-of toils and tortures in numbers such as
I beheld ! AndJ[why doth man's transgression
scourge man so ?

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22-50] Ijell [canto VII.

As doth the billow away above Charybdis, that
breaketh with the wave on which it dasheth ; even
so must they that have their dwelling here wheel
in their dance. Here saw I dwellers in greater
multitudes than elsewhere, on one side and the
other, with mighty howling, rolling weights with
strength of chest : they dashed against one
another, and straightway each turned him,
rolling back, and shouting : " Why hoardest
thou ?" and " Why squanderest thou ?"

So through the foul round wheeled they back-
wards, on either hand, unto the opposite point,
shouting once again their drone of scorn. Then
each one turned, when through the half-round
he had come again to the other jostling-place.
And I, whose heart was well-nigh pierced, ex-
claimed : " My master, tell me now what people
are these, and if those all were priests, those with
shorn heads upon our left ?"

And he made answer to me : " Never a one of
them is there but was in earlier life so blind of
soul, that his spending knew naught of modera-
tion. Their barking voices tell thee this full
clearly, when they draw near to the extremities
of the circle, where contrary sin doth hurl them
apart. These were priests, that have no hairy
covering on the head, and popes and cardinals,
in whom greed worketh with its most wondrous
potency."

And I said : " Master, among so many in such
plight, some I should surely recognise, who bore

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CANTO VII.] IBanU'B €ifm^Pa l5i-79

the stain of vices of such kind.*" And he made
answer to me : ** Vain thought thou dost conceive :
the blind life that hath made them base, now
maketh them dark beyond all recognition. For all
time will they run butting against each other:
these shall come forth from the grave with hands
clenched tight, and these with close -cropped
locks. Ill-spending and ill-keeping hath reft
from them the world of brightness, and plunged
them in this hurly-burly ; and what it is, I use no
fine words to describe. Here mayest thou see,
my son, the fleeting mockery of wealth that is the
sport of Fortune, for sake of which men strive
with one another. For all the gold that is, or
ever hath been beneath the moon, could not
procure repose for one of these weary souls."
" Master," I said to him J* now tell me once again,
this Fortune, on which thou didst just touch,
what is she, that holdeth so within her clutches
the good things of the earth ?"

And he made answer to me: "Besotted
race, how deep the ignorance that harasseth you !
I wish thee now to take upon thy lips my judg-
ment of her.

•* He whose knowledge surpasseth all other
knowledge, created the heavens and gave them
what should guide them ; and in such wise, that
every part Should lend its light to every other
part, diffusing its brightness without distinction.
In like fashion, did He ordain, for worldly glitter,
a guide and director over all ; to change at varying

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79109] ^^n [canto VII.

seasons vain possessions, from nation to nation,
from one race to another, beyond the let of human
wit. Wherefore one nation holdeth sway, another
wasteth, the while they carry out her ordinance,
which lieth hid from sight, even as a serpent in
the grass. Your knowledge hath nothing where-
with to oppose her: she taketh forethought,
shapeth her judgments, and lordeth it in her
domain, even as the other gods in theirs. The
changes that she worketh know never truce.
Necessity maketh her swift ; so quickly crowding
come the things that suffer alteration. This is
she that is so often put in pillory, ay, even by
them that should shower praises on her, heaping,
in their perverted judgment, reviling and evil words
upon her. But she is of the blessed, and never
heedeth it. Happy amidst the other first created
ones, roUeth she her wheel, and in her bliss re-
joiceth.

" But let us now go down to misery more intense.
Already every star is setting, that was ascending
when I began my journey, and loitering over-
much is not allowed."

We crossed the circle to the other bank by a
bubbling spring thajt tumbles down a cleft worn
by its stream. The water was darker far than
purple-black : and following the swarthy waves
we made our way down by a strange path. It
maketh a pool called Styx, this melancholy
streamlet, when it hath flowed down to the base
- of the gray forbidding slopes. And I, who stayed

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CANTO VI l] 3eintt'B (ti^xttttfu [109-130

my steps, all intent on looking, saw people in that
slough laden with mire, all naked, with indigna-
tion in their looks. They smote each other, not
with their hands alone, but with head and chest
and feet, rending each other piecemeal with their
teeth.

My gentle Master said : *' My son, thou seest
now the souls of those of whom anger got the
upper hand : I wish thee moreover to believe for
certain, that underneath the water there are
people that utter sighs, and make this water
bubble on its surface, as thine eyes may tell thee
whatever way they turn. Lodged firmly in the
slush, they keep saying : * Filled with sorrow we
were up in the pleasant air which the sun maketh
glad, our breasts laden with vapour that maketh
sad the heart : and here our sorrow continueth
under the black mire.' This refrain they gurgle
in their throats, for power they have not to utter
it in distinct words."

So went we round a great sweep of the noisome
fen, betwixt the dry bank and the rotting mass,
with eyes directed upon those that gulp down the
filth.

At long length we approached the base of a
tower.

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CANTO VIII.

SAY, continuing, that, long ere we
reached the lofty tower's base, our
eyes went upwards to its battlements,
because of two small lights, the which
we saw set there, and yet another,
answering the signal from so far away, that the eye
could scarcely catch it. And I, turning me to
the Sea of all knowledge, said : '* What saith yon
light ? and what answer sendeth back the other
fire ? And who are they that made it ?" And he
to me: "Out on the filthy waves thou canst
already see that which we wait for, if the fen's
vapour doth not conceal it from thee."

Never did bowstring yet discharge an arrow,
that sped so swiftly through the air, as through
the water did a tiny vessel which I saw come to-
wards us then, steered by a single helmsman, who
cried aloud : ** Art thou arrived, foul spirit?"

" Phlegyas, Phlegyas," said my Lord, ** this time
thou criest aloud to little purpose. Thou shalt
not have us but while we cross the flood."

And as one that learneth of some deep deceit
that hath been wrought against him, and straight-

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u

CANTO viii.] 9atdt*si (tvixn^Pu [23-46

way is filled with resentment; even such was
Phlegyas in his gathered wrath.

My Guide went down into the boat, and then
made me embark close after him ; and not until I
was within it, did it seem freighted. No sooner
were my Guide and I in the craft, than the old
prow went forward, cleaving ) the wave more
deeply than was its wont with others.
» Whilst we were traversing the sluggish channel,
a figure, covered with mud, uprose before me, and
said : " Who art thou that comest before thy
time ?" And I made answer to him : " If I
come, I do not abide : but who art thou that art
become so brutish ?''

He answered : ** Thou seest that I am one who
mourn."

And I to him : *' Abide thou then, curst shade,
in mourning and in tribulation ! I know thee
well, for all thy covering slime."

Then stretched he both his hands towards the
boat : whereat my Master, gathering his intent,
thrust him back, exclaiming : " Away with thee to
the other dogs !"

Then threw he his arms about my neck, kissed
my face, and said : ** Indignant soul, blessed be
she that laid aside her girdle* against thy coming.
This one was when on earth a man of haughty

* Compare Sir W. Scott's " Monastery," ii. 7 : " Catherine
went . . . and as she walked, the situation which requires
a wider gown and a longer girdle, and in which woman
claims from man a double portion of the most anxious care,
was still more visible than before."

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46-75] i^^tH [canto vm-

mien : there is no kindly deed to shed a lustre on
his memory ; and so his spirit here is filled with
fury. How many are there that bear themselves
above as mighty kings, that here shall stand like
swine in slush, leaving behind them loathing and
condemnation !"

And I : " Master, right gladly would I see him
plunged in the broth, before we leave the lake.'*

And he said unto me : ** Or ever the shore
loometh in sight, thy wish will be accomplished.
It were right thou shouldst be gratified in such
desire." A little after that, I saw such havoc
wrought on him by the muddy crowd» that even
now I offer praise and thanks to God for it. All
cried aloud : ** To Filippo Argenti !"

The fiery Florentine spirit turned his own teeth
upon himself. Here we left him, nor speak I of
him any more.

But on mine ears there smote a sound of lament-
ation, whereat I opened wide mine eyes, gazing
with eagerness before me. And my gentle Master
said : ** Now draweth nigh, my son, the city that
beareth the name of Dis, its heavy-laden burghers,
and its vast crowd." And I replied: "Master, even
now I surely see yonder within the valley its
minarets all scarlet, as though they were but come
from out the fire."

And he said unto me : ** The fire that dieth not,
the same that maketh them to blaze within,
maketh them red to sight, even as thou seest, in
this depth of Hell."

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CANTO VIII.] 9anfQ'0 €0m^i>K [76-105

We passed, however, within the deep-cut
trenches, which moat the joyless city round : the
walls seemed to me to be of iron. And it was only
after making a great round, that we came to a
place where the boatman loudly called to us: "On
shore with you : the landing-place is here."

Above the gates I saw more than a thousand
shades, who had fallen, like the rain, from
Heaven, who said in wrathful accent : ** Who
is he, that hath not tasted death, and passeth
through the kingdom of the dead ?" And my
sage Master made a sign to show he wished
to speak with them in secret.

Then in some measure did they curb their deep
disdain, and said : ** Come thou alone, and let him
yonder go, who with such daring hath made his
way into this realm. Let him go back again by
his foolhardy path : let him make trial if he
knoweth it : for thou shalt tarry here, that hast
shown him so dark a land,"

Bethink thee. Reader, if I was dismayed at the
sound of these accursed words; for I believed
that I should never return to earth.

" O my beloved guide, who hast restored me

more than seven times to safety, and rescued me

from the deep peril wherewith I was confronted,

not," I said, "so utterly undone; for if

lat going farther is denied me, let us at

ice our steps together."

at Lord, who had led me thither, said to

; not afraid, for none hath power to let

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105-T30J i^tU [canto Vlll.

our way : so strong is He that hath vouchsafed it
to us. Await me here, and strengthen and cheer
thy fainting spirit with comfortable hope. I will
not leave thee in the lower world." And speaking
thus, the gentle Father goeth off, leaving me
where I was ; and I remain in doubt ; for yea and
nay strive within my brain. I could not catch the
words that he addressed to them : but long he
had not stood amongst them there, when all
rushed back contending in their speed.

These enemies of ours thrust to the doors
right in my Master's face, and he remained with-
out, and turned him back to me with measured
tread. His eyes were on the ground, and his
brows reft of all boldness, and he said, the while
he sighed : '' Who hath denied to me the abiding
place of sorrows ?" And he said to me : *^ Yield
thou to no dismay, because my wrath is stirred ;
I shall surmount the trial, for all that they con-
trive within to stay me. This arrogance of theirs
is nothing new ; for erewhile did they indulge in it
at a less secret gate, the same that even to this
hour is found unbarred. Above it thou hast seen
the legend that slayeth hope : and even now on
this side of it, there cometh down the steep,
traversing the circles without guide, one of such
power, that through his aid the city will be opened
to us."

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CANTO IX.

j|HE hue which cowardice painted upon
my countenance, when that I saw my
Guide turn back, repressed in him
more speedily his unwonted choler.
He stopped attentive, even as a man
that hsteneth ; for the eye could not lead him far
through the murky air and gathered mist.

**And yet," he began, ** it is meet we win the
fight ; if not — such aid was proffered to us. Ah
me ! how long a time it seemeth to me till he I
look for come !''

I noted well how he had cloaked his opening
speech with what came after — words far different
from the first. But none the less did his language
strike me with fear; for, peradventure, I inter-
preted his broken words as of less favourable
import than he meant.

** Down to this depth of the gruesome shell,
doth ever any soul descend from the first grade,
whose only punishment is hopeless hope ?"

Such question I addressed him ; and he made
answer to me : *' But seldom doth it happen that

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20-So] ^ti^l [canto IX.

any one of us maketh the journey on which I go.
True it is that once before I came down here,
conjured by dire Erictho, whose call restored the
shades unto their bodies. But for a little space
was the vesture of my flesh laid aside, when she
compelled me to pass within these walls, to rescue
thence a spirit of the circle of Judas. That is the
lowest place, the darkest too, the most removed
from Heaven, whose circle enfoldeth all : well wot
I of the way; so set thy mind at rest. This
marsh, which doth exhale the great stench, sur-
roundeth the city of sorrow on all sides, where
we cannot enter now without being stirred to
wrath."

And more he spake ; but I hold it not in my
memory; for my eyes had drawn me wholly
towards the lofty tower with its crest of fire,
where in a moment I beheld three hellish Furies
all erect, begrimed with blood, who had the limbs
and pose of women, and were begirt with hydras
of brightest green. Snakes and serpents had they
for hair, wherewith their hideous temples were
bound.

And he, for well he knew the handmaidens of
the Queen of unending lamentation, said unto
me : ** Mark the fierce Erinnyes. She on the left
is Megsera ; she that is weeping on the right is
Alecto. Tesiphone is between them." And with
this he held his peace.

Each was tearing her breast with her talons ;
with their palms were they beating themselves,

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CANTO IX.] ^mxtt^sk 9ioinxttfU [50-80

and shrieked in such loud tone, that in my fear
I clung close to the Poet's side.

*' Let Medusa come; so shall we turn him into
stone," they all cried out, bending low their eyes.
" In evil hour we wreaked not vengeance on
Theseus for his violent approach."

" Turn back and keep thine eyes fast closed ;
for should the Gorgon show herself, and shouldst
thou look upon her, then were there never more
return into the world above." So spake the
Master; and himself turned me round, and trusted
not my hands, but with his own he closed mine
eyes. O ye whose intellects are whole, mark well
the teaching that is hidden under the veil of
mystery-laden verses !

And now there came, over the ruffled flood, the
crashing of a fearful sound, whereat both shores did
tremble ; in fashion like unto a whirlwind, rushing
in conflict with opposing heat, that smiteth the
forest, and in its unbridled power shattereth the
branches, beateth down and sweepeth them far
and wide. Heralded by dust, it passeth onward
in its pride, and maketh the wild beasts and the
shepherds to flee.

He loosed mine eyes, and spake : ** Turn now
thy power of sight over that ancient foam — ^yonder
where the smoke is thickest."

As frogs, before their foe the water-snake,
scatter in all directions through the flood, till
each is huddled at the bottom ; so saw I more
than a thousand of the lost shades fleeing before

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8i-iii] ^tU [canto IX.

one that passed the Styx on foot with soles unwet.
He fanned the thick air from his face, waving his
left hand frequently in front of him ; and only of
that labour seemed he weary. Full well did I
perceive that he was Heaven-sent, and I turned
me to the Master : and he made signal to me to
stand unmoved, and bow myself before him. Oh,
how full of indignation did he seem to me ! He
reached the gate, and with a wand he opened it,
for in it there was no resistance.

" Outcasts of Heaven, despised race," began he,
as he crossed the loathsome threshold, "where-
fore maketh such arrogance its biding-place within
you ? Why kick ye against that will, whose end is
never unaccomplished, which oftentimes hath
made your dole more bitter ? What doth it profit
you to butt against the Fates ? Your Cerberus —
if ye remember yet — has still his snout and throat
laid bare for doing so."

Then turned he back upon the filthy road, nor
spake he any word to us : but was like unto a man
distracted and beset by other care than that of
those who are about him. And we turned our
steps towards the city, cheered by the holy
words.

Without conflict we came within its walls; and
I, who yearned to see of what nature was the
inside of such a fortress, when I had passed
within, cast my eyes around ; and I saw on either
hand a mighty plain teeming with tribulation and
cruel torment.

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CANTO IX.] Cauf^'0 €mxx^pu [i 12-133

Even as at Aries, where the Rhone grows
sluggish, or at Pola close by Quarnaro's bay, that
closeth Italy and bathes her boundaries, the
sepulchres make all the place uneven : so was it
here on every side, save that the manner here was
more forbidding : for flames were spread amongst
the tombs, by which they were so heated through
and through, that hotter iron no craft requireth.
Their lids were all wide open ; and forth from them
there issued such bitter lamentations, that they
must needs have come from hapless and tor-
mented souls.

And I : ** Master, what are these people, who,
entombed within these vaults, make themselves
heard by sighs of sorrow ?"

And he made answer to me : " The Arch-
heretics are here, together with their followers of
€very sect ; and the tombs are crowded far beyond
what thou dost dream. Like here is sepulchred
with like ; and more and less the monuments are
heated."

And when he had turned him to the right, we
passed between the torments and the towering
battlements.

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CANTO X.

OW, by a narrow avenue between the
city's wall and the torments, my
Master passes on, and I behind his
shoulders.

** O virtue supreme,'* I spake,
** that at thy pleasure dost lead me
around the circles of the sinful : vouchsafe thy
speech to me, and grant me satisfaction in my
longing. Might they, the souls that are lying
within the tombs, perchance be seen ? The lids
already are. all uplifted; and no one keepeth
guard."

And he made answer to me: "They shall be
all made fast, when they return here from
Jehoshaphat, with the bodies they have left in the
world above. Here have they their burying-place,
Epicurus and all his folio vvers, who make the soul
and body perish together. Wherefore full soon
within there shalt thou have satisfaction con-
cerning the question thou puttest to me, ay, and
the longing, too, the which thou hidest from me."
And I : " Gentle Guide, I only keep my heart
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CANTO X.] ^aniti'm QTiormit^s [19 48

concealed from thee that I may speak the less;
and thereto, long ere now, thou hast thyself dis-
posed me."

" O Tuscan, who through the city of fire dost
pass alive, with utterance so becoming, prithee
here stay thy steps. Full clearly doth thy accent
bespeak thee a countryman of that proud land,
to which I haply have been too severe." Of a
sudden these words came forth from one of the
vaults : whereat in fear I pressed more closely to
my Leader's side.

And he said unto me : " Turn thee round ;
what art thou doing ? See Farinata yonder,
who has raised himself All from the girdle up-
wards thou shalt behold him."

Ere this I had riveted mine eyes on his ; and he
uplifted himself, breast and brow, as though he
treated Hell with utter scorn. And my Guide's
resolute and ever-ready hands thrust me between
the tombs towards him, saying : " Let thy words
be measured."

And as soon as I was come unto the foot of
his sepulchre, he looked at me a moment, and
straightway, in almost tones of scorn, he asked
me : ** Who were thine ancestors ?"

I, as I was desirous to yield obedience, con-
cealed it not, but fully told him all ; upon which
he raised his brows a little, and then he spake :
"Savagely hostile were they to me and to my
fathers, and to my faction, so much so that I
scattered them two several times."

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49-8i] ^^li [canto X.

"If they were driven forth, both times did they re-
turn again from far and wide," I made him answer;
" but yours have never learned that art aright."

And then, close by his side, there rose to view
a shade uncovered to the chin : I think it had
raised itself upon its knees. It gazed about me,
as though possessed of a desire to see if any other
were along with me ; but after that its suspicions
were wholly set at rest, it spake, in tones of
sorrow : " If it be by surpassing genius that thou
goest through this gloomful prison, where is my
son, and wherefore is he not with thee?" And
I made answer to him : '* I come not of myself : he
that waiteth yonder ieadeth me through this place,
whom, it may be, thy Guido held in contempt."

The words he spake and the fashion of his
punishment had ere this read his name to me :
wherefore was my answer so full. Suddenly rising
erect, he cried : " How saidst thou ? He held ?
Liveth he not still ? Doth not the light we love
fall on his eyes?" When he perceived that I
paused awhile before making answer, he sank
supine, and showed himself no more.

But that other high-souled one, he at whose
bidding I had stayed my steps, changed not his
countenance, nor moved his neck, nor stooped his
side. "And if," he said, continuing the words
he spake at first, " they have learned that art but
ill, it fifalleth me more even than this bed. But

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CANTO x] 9anfie*0 (Cmrnt^u [81-108

know the grievous burden of that art. And, as
thou fain would st win thy way to the pleasant
world, say, wherefore is that people in all its laws
so unrelenting against my kin ?"

Whereat I answered him: **The rout and.
mighty carnage, which changed the Arbia's colour
into crimson, are the cause why such decrees are
enacted in our temple."

And after that he had shaken his head, sighing
the while, he said : " In that I was not single-
handed; nor, of a surety, without good cause
should I have joined the others. But I was
single-handed there, where each one gave his
voice to lay waste Florence, I, who in sight of all
stood champion of her cause."

** Then, as thou fain wouldst see thy race at
rest, unloose for me," I begged of him, " this knot
wherewith my mind is now entangled. It seemeth,
if I rightly hear, that ye have power to see what
time is bringing in its train or ever it come ; but
touching things that' are, have no such power."

" We see," he said, " the things which are remote
from us, like one whose sight is dim : so much of
light the sovereign Lord doth still vouchsafe to
us. When they are drawing nigh, or come to
being, our power of apprehension is wholly vain :
and but for what others bring to us, we know
nought of your human state. Wherefore thou
mayest understand that our knowledge shall be
entirely dead, from the moment when the gate of
futurity shall be closed."

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109-136] i^i[U [canto X.

Then, as though smitten by regret for my fault,
I said : " Go now and tell that fallen one, that
his son is still amongst the living. And if I held my
peace before, what time I should have answered,
let him know, I did so because my thoughts
till now were clouded with the doubt from which
thou hast set me free." And already my Master
was calling me back, wherefore, with greater
eagerness, I urged the spirit that he would tell
me who was with him. He spake to me : " With
more than a thousand do I lie here : the second
Frederick is inside here, the Cardinal too ; and of
the others I am silent." Wherewith he disap-
peared. And I turned my steps to the ancient
Poet, pondering on that speech which seemed
to bode me ill. He moved on, and as he went
he said to me : ** Wherefore art thou bewildered
so?" And I satisfied him in his inquiry.

** See that thy memory hold fast what thou
hast heard against thee," the Sage enjoined me.
•* And now fix thy attention here ": and he raised
his finger. " When thou shalt come before the
sweet radiance of her whose beauteous eye be-
holdeth all, thou shalt learn from her the journey
of thy life." Thereupon he turned his footsteps

to thft Iftft-

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CANTO XI.

VER the precipice of a towering cliff,
formed by huge red stones in a circle,
we came upon a crowd in still more
cruel plight. And here, by reason of
the horrible excess of stench which
the deep chasm casteth up, we drew aside into the
shelter of the cover of a great tomb, where I beheld
a legend, saying: "I guard Pope Anastasius,
whom Photinus led astray from the true path.''

" Our going down must needs be slow, so that
our sense may first grow somewhat accustomed
to the noisome blast, and afterwards we shall not
heed it." So spake my Master : and I said unto
him : *' Bethink thee of some means of compensa-
tion, in order that the time may not go by unpro-
fitably." And he replied : " Thou seest that I
am thinking even of that."

" My son," he thereupon began to say, "within
these stones are three concentric circles, resem-
bling those thou leavest. All three are filled full
of accursed spirits : but that the sight of them
alone hereafter may suffice thee, hear in what
manner, and for what crimes, they are confined.

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22-49] ^tli [canto XI.

" Of every evil act that earneth hate in Heaven,
the end is injury; and every such end, by either
violence or fraud, heapeth sorrow upon others.
But forasmuch as fraud is man's peculiar vice,
it is the more displeasing unto God ; and there-
fore they who dealt in fraud are set beneath, and
greater is the torture that doth afflict them. The
whole first circle is for the doers of violence : but,
forasmuch as force may be used against three
persons, it is divided in its structure into three
rounds. Force may be used against God, against
one's self, against one's neighbour ; to them, 1
mean, and their belongings, as thou shalt learn in
unambiguous speech.

"Through force, death and grievous wounds
may be inflicted on one's neighbour; and on that
which he hath, destruction, conflagration, and
ruinous extortion: wherefore all slayers of men,
and everyone that smiteth in malice, plunderers
and robbers, in separate herds, the first round
holdeth in torment. Man may lay violent hands
upon himself, and eke on his possessions ; and
for this reason is it that in the second circle he
must needs repent in unavailing agony, whoever
strippeth himself of your world, gambleth, and
squandereth his fortune, and mourneth in the
land where he should dwell in gladness.

" Force may be used against the Deity, denying
in one's heart and blaspheming Him, holding
nature in scorn, and her munificence: and for
this reason is it that the lesser circle brandeth

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CANTO XI.] 9anf0'0 €amcbsi [50-79

with its seal Sodom and Cahors, and him that in
his heart speaketh in scorn of God.

" Fraud, with which there is no conscience but
is bitten, a man may practise upon one who
putteth his trust in him ; and upon one who
giveth no credit for fidelity. This last kind
seemeth only to sever the bond of love which
nature weaveth ; and therefore is it that in the
second circle there nestle hypocrisy, flattery,
workers of sorcery, treacher}% robbery and simony,
panders, barrators, and such-like refuse.

** In thQ other kind, the love which cometh of
nature is forgotten, as also that which is there-
unto after joined, from which a special faith is
born ; and for this reason is it that in the
smaller circle, the place where is the centre of
the universe, above which Dis is throned, each
traitor is consumed for ever."

And I : " Master, full clearly doth thy speech
proceed, and excellently doth it distinguish this
deep gulf, and those with whom it is peopled.
But tell me : those of the greasy marsh, whom
the blast driveth, and the rain smiteth, and
those that come together with tongues so sharp,
wherefore are they not punished within the
fiery city, if God's wrath be upon them; and
if it be not, why are they punished as they
are ?"

And he said unto me : ** Why strayeth thy
apprehension so far beyond its wonted range ?
Or are thy thoughts turned somewhere else ?

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80-IO9I ^tll [canto XI.

Callest thou not to recollection the words in
which thy favourite ethics treat of the three
habits, which Heaven suffereth not, incontinence,
malignity, and senseless bestiality ? And how
incontinence is less offensive to God, and calleth
down upon itself a lesser condemnation ? If thou
dost rightly ponder this belief, and callest to thy
thoughts who they are that, higher up beyond
these circles, repent in torture, then mayest thou
clearly see why they are kept apart from these
oifenders, and why God's justice dealeth in lesser
indignation its blows upon them."

" O sun, that bringest healing unto all clouded
vision, thou grantest unto me such satisfaction
in thine unravelling, that doubting doth delight me
no less than certainty. Turn thee again back-
ward a little space," I said, "to where thou sayest
that usury offendeth God's goodness, and unloose
that knot for me."

** Philosophy," he said to me, " to him that
understandeth it, showeth, not in one place alone,
how nature shapeth her going from God's intelli-
gence, and from its art ; and if thou dost closely
scan thy Physics, thou wilt find, or ever many
leaves be passed, that even your art, as far as it
is able, followeth her, even as a learner doth
his teacher, in such wise that your art is, as it
were, grandchild to God. By these two, if thou
recallest to thy mind an early page in Genesis,
doth it behove mankind to win their means of
life, and to excel. And for that the usurer goeth

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CANTO XI.] 3einivCB (£.ioimtX^u [109-115

another way, he slighteth nature both in herself
and follower, putting his trust elsewhere.

** But now come after me, as I am pleased to
go : for the Fishes are shimmering above the
horizon, and over Caurus the Wain is stretched
in all its length, and far off yonder is the way
down the steep.*'

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CANTO XII.

HE place to which we came, in order
to go down the bank, was rugged as
the Alps; and in its nature such more-
over, by reason of what was there,
that every eye would shun it. As is the
precipice which, on this side Trent, came crash-
ing on the bank of the Adige, through earth-
quake, or through failing prop, and in such wise
that from the mountain's crown, from where it
came away, down to the plain, the stony side is
so uptorn as to afford a passage to one* upon the
summit ; even such was the descent of this craggy
steep. And on the crest of the shattered gorge
was stretched the source of Crete's ill-fame, the
same that was conceived by the pretended cow.
And when he saw us, he bit himself even as one
whom anger lasheth within.

My Sage called out to him : " Thou thinkest,
peradventure, the Duke of Athens is here, who
in the world above laid death upon thee ? Away
with thee, beast, for this one cometh not under
the guidance of thy sister, but maketh his journey
that he may look upon your torments."

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CANTO XII.] 3ante*« C0mel»|| [2252

As a bull that breaketh his bonds, what time
he feeleth the death-stroke on him ; that cannot
go, but reeleth to and fro; even so I saw the
minotaur do. And he that was ever ready cried
out : ** Run to the pass ; it were well thou didst
descend whilst the fur>^ is upon him."

So we took our way down by these jagged
heaps of rock, which oftentimes, with the un-
wonted weight, started from beneath my feet.
Thinking, I went along ; and he said : ** Per-
chance thou thinkest of the ruined mass that is
sentinelled by that angry beast I laid but now to
rest ? Now I would have thee know, that, the
other time I came down here into the depth of
Hell, this rocky pile had not yet fallen. But
surely, if I distinguish aright, a little ere He
came, who wrested from Dis the great prey of
the outmost circle, the deep foul valley so
trembled through its length and breadth, that
I made sure the universe had felt love's thrill,
whereby, there are who think, the world has
been reduced to chaos many times : and at that
moment this ancient rocky heap, here as else-
where, came rolling down. But fix your gaze
upon the valley, for there draweth nigh the river
of blood, in which they boil who work by violence
an injury on their neighbour. O sightless greed !
O foolish wrath ! that dost in our short life, so
goad us ; and after, in the life that hath no end,
dost sink us in such evil plight.''

I saw a spacious moat, bent bow-shape, so as

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53-^2] ||^n [canto xii.

to stretch its arms about the entire plain ; even
as my guide had told me. And in the space
between it and the base of the bank, Centaurs
were charging each on the other's heels, equipped
with arrows, as in the world above it was their
wont to go a-hunting. On seeing us come down,
each came to a halt, and three came out from
the troop, first making choice of bows and shafts-
And one of them cried out from a distance :
" What is the punishment to which ye come, ye
that descend the steep ? Declare from where ye
are ; if not, I draw my bow."

My Master said : "To Chiron will we answer
when we are yonder face to face with him : thy
temper, to thy cost, was ever headstrong thus."
Then touching me, he said : " This is Nessus,
who died for beauteous Dejanira, and of himself
wrought vengeance for himself. He in the midst,
whose eyes are on his breast, is the great Chiron,
who reared Achilles : the other is Pholus, who
was so filled with wrath : round and round the
moat they go in thousands, piercing with their
arrows any shade that riseth from the blood
beyond the limit apportioned to his sin."

We came close to these nimble beasts : Chiron
took an arrow, and with the notched end moved
back his beard upon his jaws. When he had bared
to view his huge mouth, he said to his com-
panions : ** Have ye perceived that he that is
behind moveth what he treadeth on ? The feet of
the dead are not wont to do so."

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CANTO XII.] 9anfi^'0 (tiomtttfu [83-113

And my kind Guide, who was already at his
breast, where the two natures come together, made
answer : " He is indeed alive ; and thus alone
must I show him the darksome valley : necessity,
not pastime, bringeth him to it. From chanting
Hallelujah, came she that set me to this unwonted
office ; he is no thief, nor I a thieving spirit. But
by the worth that giveth me to move my steps
through road so rough, vouchsafe to us one of thy
troop, that we may go beside him, and he may
show us where the crossing is, and bear my com-
rade on his back ; for he is not a shade to tread
on air."

Chiron turned him on his right breast, and said
to Nessus : ** Go back, and guide them so ; and
should another troop confront you, make them
retreat."

We went away with our trusty escort, along the
edge of the seething scarlet, where they who
boiled within it uttered loud shrieks. I saw some
plunged up to the brows : and the huge Centaur
said : " These are tyrants, whose spoils were blood
and wealth. Here they are mourning their piti-
less exactions : Alexander is here ; and savage
Dionysius, who brought long years of sorrow upon
Sicily ; and yonder brow, that weareth hair so
black, is Azzolino; the other, yonder, he of the
fair complexion, is Obizzo of Este, who, in truth,
was done to death on earth by his unnatural
son."

Then I turned me to the Bard, and he said :
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** Let him be now thy chief guide, and me thy
second.'*

Farther on a Httle, the Centaur halted above
a crowd that seemed to rise as far as the throat
out of the seething stream. He pointed out to us
a shade, companionless and apart, saying : " He
it was that in God's bosom pierced the heart that
still is reverenced on the Thames."

Then saw I people who kept their heads, ay,
and even their whole chest above the river ; and
many I recognised amongst them.

So, little by little, the blood sank lower, until it
scalded only the feet ; and there lay our way across
the gorge.

** As, on this side, thou seest the seething stream
continually growing shallower," the Centaur said,
** I would have thee believe that, yonder, on the
other side, its bottom sinketh more and more,
until it Cometh again to where the tyrants are
doomed to mourn. At this side God's Justice
tormenteth that Attila, who was a scourge on
earth ; Pyrrhus, too, and Sextus ; and wringeth for
ever the teardrops, which with its boiling it maketh
to flow, from Rinier of Corneto, and Rinier Pazzo,
who on the highway waged such ruthless war."

Then turned he back, and crossed the ford
again.

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CANTO XIII.

ESSUS had not yet reached the other
side, when we set out through a
thicket, where was never a trace of
pathway. No green leaves were there,
but of^ dusky colour; no slender
boughs, but gnarled and knotted ; no fruit, but only
thorns and poison. The wildwood beasts that be-
tween Cecina and Cornuto shun the laboured tilths,
know never underwood so thorny or so tangled.
Here the foul Harpies build their nest, who drave
the Trojans from the Strophades with gloomy
presage of impending woe. Broad pinions have
they, and human necks and faces, clawed feet, and
their great bellies fledged with plumes: perched on
strange trees they pour forth dismal notes.

And my kind Master began to say to me :
'* Before thou goest farther in, know that thou art
within the second zone, and shalt be, until thou
art come upon the forbidding sand. Be thy sight
therefore keen, and so shalt thou behold things
which would rob my words of credence."

I heard on all sides heaving of groans, but saw
no one that uttered them ; wherefore I stopped all

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in bewilderment. I think he thought that I
thought this chorus of voices came through the
boughs from people who were hiding because
of us. Wherefore my Master said : " Tear but
a leaf from off these plants, and all the thoughts
thou harbourest will be vain."

Then put I forth my hand in front of me a little,
and plucked a spray from oif a huge briar ; and
the trunk cried aloud : ** Why dost thou rend
me ?" And when that it became discoloured with
blood, it began again to cry aloud : " Why dost
thou lacerate me ? Hast thou no spirit of com-
miseration ? Men have we been, and now are
turned to trees. Thy hand might well have shown
more mercy, had we been the spirits of serpents."

As with a green branch, that at one end is
burning, and at the other splutters, and crackles
by reason of the air escaping ; so from this broken
spray came forth together words and blood :
wherefore I dropped the twig and stood like one
in fear.

" If he, vexed spirit," said my Sage, " could
have believed, ere it was yet too late, that which
he now hath seen accomplished according to my
speech, he would not have put forth his hand
against thee : but that which seemed incredible
to him urged me to prompt him to an act that
weigheth heavily upon me. But tell him who
thou wast ; so that, by way of reparation, he may
restore thy good name in the world above, whither
it is allowed him to return."

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And the trunk spake : " With such fair words
thou dost entice me, I have, no power to hold my
peace ; and let it not be irksome to thee, if I be
lured to say what I shall say at some little length.

" I am he that had in charge both keys of
Frederick's heart ; and turned them, locking and
unlocking, with such quiet skill, that there was
scarce one whom I withheld not from his secret
thoughts. So true was I to the high office that
was mine, that it cost me my life's blood.* The
harlot that never turned her lecherous eyes from
Caesar's halls, that common source of death, that
vice of courts, stirred all men's minds into a flame
against me; and those that caught the flame
inflamed Augustus so, that welcome honours
turned to dismal sorrows. My soul, in its con-
temptuous mood, thinking by death to flee con-
tempt, made me, with all my justice, unjust against
myself By this tree's fresh-grown roots, I swear
to you, I never broke fealty to my lord, who was so
worthy of honour. And if one of you go back to
the world, set up the memory of my name, that
lieth cowering still under the blow that envy
dealt it."

He paused for a space, and then the Poet said
to me : *' Since he is silent, lose not the oppor-
tunity, but speak, and ask of him, if thou wouldst
fain hear more."

Wherefore I said to him : " Do thou inquire of
him once more whatever thou thinkest would con-
* Lit. * both veins and pulse.'

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tent me, for I have not the power ; such pity doth
fill my heart."

Wherefore he resumed : " Once more, im-
prisoned shade — so may the man accomplish for
thee generously all that thy speech entreateth —
consent to tell us, how it is that the soul cometh to
be bound within these gnarled knots ; and tell us,
if thou canst, if any ever maketh its escape from
out these limbs."

Thereat the trunk puffed a strong breath forth,
and straightway the air took shape in some such
words : " Briefly ye shall be answered. When
the fierce soul leaveth the body, from whence, of
its own act, it hath been rudely severed, Minos
consigneth it to the seventh abyss. Into the wood
it falleth, nor is there any place apportioned to it ;
but on the spot where chance may toss it, there,
like a grain of corn, it sprouteth. It riseth to a
sapling and to a wildwood plant; and then the
Harpies, feeding upon its leaves, cause agony, and
for that agony an outlet. As others will, so we
shall come to seek our spoils, but none the more
for that shall any of us again array himself there-
with ; because it were not right that man should
have that which he taketh from himself. Hither
shall we drag them, and through the melancholy
glade our bodies shall be hung, each on the briar
to which his tortured shade belongeth."

We waited still expectant by the trunk, think-
ing it wished to tell lis more, when we were
startled by a noise, as when a man perceiveth the

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wild boar and the Hunt approach the place where
he is stationed, hearing the crashing of the beasts
and boughs. And lo ! upon our left two shades,
naked and torn, in such wild flight, that they
broke all the branches through the wood. And
he in front called out : " Haste thee, now haste
thee, death." And the other, who thought his pace
too slack, cried aloud : " Lano, thy limbs showed
other speed than this at Toppo*s jousts." And
then, perchance because his breath had failed, he
thrust himself into a bush. Fast on their track
the wood was filled with swarthy she-dogs, hungry
and speeding onwards, like greyhounds bursting
from the leash. Into him, that crouched, they drave
their teeth, and tore him piecemeal : then carried
off his wretched limbs. Then my guide took me
by the hand, and led me to the bush that wailed
in bootless lamentation through its bleeding
wounds.

" O Jacob of Saint Andrea," it cried, " what
did it profit thee to make a screen of me ? What
blame have I for thy sin-laden life ?"

When that my Master had halted by it, he
said : " Who wast thou, that through wounds so
many shootest forth in blood thy words of
sorrow ?"

And he made answer to us : ** Ye spirits that
are come to look upon the shameless mutilation
that hath so stripped my leaves from off me,
gather them to the foot of the unhappy shrub.
I was a dweller in the city that changed its earliest

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patron for the Baptist, wherefore he shall for ever,
because of tliis, heap sorrow on her with his art.
And were it not that where they cross the Arno
there liveth still some semblance of him, these
burghers, who raised its walls anew above the
ashes that were left by Attila, would have spent
their labour in vain.

** Of my own house I made myself a gibbet."

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CANTO XIV.

GATHERED up the scattered leaves,
for love of my native land constrained
me ; and gave them back to him who
was already hoarse. Thence came
we to the border, where the second
zone is parted from the third, and where Justice
is seen to work in terrifying forms.

To set forth in clearness things never seen till
then, I say we came unto a tract that suffereth no
growing thing upon its soil.

Wreathed around it is the wood of lamentation,
even as the gloomy foss encircleth the wood.
There on the outmost brink we stayed our steps.
The soil was a thick and barren sand, and, in its
fashion, even as that which of old was trodden by
Cato*s feet.

O Vengeance of God, how mightily shouldst
thou be feared by all who read that which was
given mine eyes to look upon ! Herd upon herd
I saw of naked shades, that all were wailing in
sore distress; and different was the law which
seemed to be imposed on each. Some lay supine

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upon the ground ; some sat crouched all together ;
and others were pacing by uninterruptedly.

Larger far was the crowd that went around;
the other less, that lay down in their torment ;
but all the louder was their voice in pain. And
slowly falling, over all the sand there rained
down broad flakes of fire, like snow-flakes in
the Alps what time the wind is still. And as
the flames which Alexander, in India's burning
regions, saw fall to earth in fiery intensity upon
his soldiery ; whereat he bethought him with his
troops to trample down the soil, seeing the fire
was easier to quench while yet alone : even in
such wise the eternal fiery stream descended;
and, as it fell, the sand was turned to flame, like
tinder under the flint, to make their suffering
double.

Ever restless was the twinkling motion of their
unhappy hands, now here, now there, brushing
from off their bodies the fresh-fallen flame.

1 began : ** Master, thou that overcomest all
things, save the unyielding demons that came,
forth to bar our way at the entrance of the gate ;
who is the huge one yonder, that seemeth not
to heed the burning ; and lieth crouching and con-
temptuous, so that the rain seemeth not to soften
him r

And he himself, aware that I asked my Guide
concerning him, cried out : ** What I was in life,
that am 1 still in death. Though Jove should
tire his smith, of whose hands, in his wrath, he

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CANTO XIV.] jPattl«*0 €mw^tfU [53-S2

took the sharpened bolt wherewith he struck nie
down in my last day ; and though, one after the
other, he tire the rest in Mongibello at their
smoky stithy, crying aloud : * Help, trusty Vulcan,
help!' as aforetime he did for Phlegra's fight:
and though he dart his shafts against me with all
the force he may, yet should he never win thereby
the vengeance that will make him glad."

Then spake my Guide with voice so strong,
that I had never heard him speak more loudly :
**0 Capaneus, for that thy pride knoweth not
abatement, thou art the more afflicted ; no tor-
ment other than thine own bhnd rage would be a
chastisement meet for thy madness."

And then with speech more gentle turned he
to me, saying : " One of the seven kings was he
that laid siege against Thebes, and he held, and
seemeth still to hold, God at defiance, and little
doth he seem to do him honour : but, as I said
to him, his own disdain is the adornment that
best befits his breast. But come now after me,
and see thou set not yet thy feet upon the fiery
sand ; but keep them ever close anigh the thicket."

Holding our peace, we came to where a tiny
streamlet comes bickering from the wood, the
scarlet hue of which still maketh my hairs to
start on end. As the rivulet cometh forth
from Bulicame, which, as it cometh forth, the
sinful women share amongst them ; so down the
sand the streamlet moved along. Its bed and
both its overhanging banks were turned to stone,

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the margins too along its sides; from which I
gathered that there was our place of crossing.

** In all that I have shown thee, since we came
within the gate, whose threshold is denied to
none, nothing has passed before thine eyes that
calleth more for note than this same stream,
which quencheth all the flames above it.*^ These
words were from my Guide : wherefore I begged
he would vouchsafe to me the food for which he
had vouchsafed the appetite.

" In the sea's midst," then said he, " there lieth
a waste land, which beareth the name of Crete,
under whose king the world was erewhile sinless.
There is a mountain there, which once was glad
with fountains and with leaves ; its name is Ida.
To-day it is abandoned, like some old chattel.
Rhea chose it of old to be her son's safe cradle,
and the better to hide him when he cried, she
made the place to ring with shouts. Deep in the
mountain there standeth erect a huge and aged
man, who keepeth his shoulders turned towards
Damiata, and looketh towards Rome, as though
it were his mirror. Of the pure gold his head is
formed, and finest silver are his arms and chest :
thence, to the joining of his legs, he is of brass :
and downwards thence, of choicest iron, save that
his right foot is of burnt clay; and, as he standeth,
he leaneth more on this than on the other. There
is no portion, save the gold, but it is scored by a
fissure that droppeth tears, which, as they gather,
win their way through yonder cavern. Their

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course is down the rocks into this valley: they
form Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon ; then, by
this narrow gully, they still flow down until they
sink so low, that one may not go lower : they
make Cocytus ; and what that stagnant pool may
be, thou shalt behold: wherefore I tell thee
nothing of it here."

And I said unto him : " If this same brooklet
floweth by such a course down from our world,
how is it that it only cometh into sight at yonder
bank?" And he made answer to me: **Thou
knowest that the place is ring-shaped, and albeit
thou hast journeyed far, descending ever to the
left downwards to the bottom, thou hast not yet
completed the whole round ; wherefore if any
new thing should appear to us, it need not strike
thy gaze with wonderment."

And I again : " Master, where be Phlegethon
and Lethe, for of the one thou sayest nought, and
tellest that the other formeth itself out of this rain ?"

" Surely, in all thy questions thou dost please
me," he made reply to me, **and yet the red and
boiling flood might well supply the answer to one
of those thou puttest to me. Lethe thou shalt
behold, but not within these depths, where the
souls are wont to come to bathe, what time their
sins are purged away through penitence." Then
he said : " Now is it time to leave the thicket ;
see thou come close behind me : the margins that
are not burning afford a path ; and over them all
fire is stifled."

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CANTO XV.

OW one of the stony margins bears us
on, while the fumes from the stream
form such a shade above it, that it
shelters both water and banks against
the fire. As the Flemings, between
Cadsand and Bruges, what time they fear the flood
that rusheth in upon them, build up the dam by
which the sea is driven back: and as the Paduans,
along the Brenta, to keep their towns and castles
safe, or ever Mount Chiarentana feel the thaw :
such, in their form, were those banks, albeit the
master, whoever he might chance to be, had
made them none so lofty nor so broad.

So far were we already from the wood, that,
though I had turned back, I could not have
detected where it lay, when we came face to face
with a crowd of shades that were coming along
the bank, and each of them stared at us, as one
is wont at eventide to stare at another under a
young moon's light ; and as an aged tailor doth
over his needle, so gathered they their eyebrows
as they gazed upon us. Thus riveted by the
eyes of such a troop, I was recognised by one,

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who took me by the skirt, and cried out : ** What
wondrous chance !" And I, when he put forth
his arm towards me, so closely fixed my eyes on
his burnt visage, that his seared countenance could
not prevent a knowledge of him from breaking on
my mind : and bending down my face to his, I
made reply : ** Art thou here, Ser Brunetto ?"

And he made answer: "My son, take it not
ill if Brunetto Latini go back with thee a little
space, letting his comrades go their way."

I said to him : " With all my power of prayer
I pray thee do so; and if .thou art desirous that
I should sit me down beside thee, so will I do, if
it but please him yonder, for with him am I
journeying."

"My son," he said, "whoever of this herd
pauseth but for an instant, must lie an hundred
years, with never power to fan himself when the
fire smiteth him. Wherefore pass on ; I will go
by thy side, and join my household after, that
goeth wailing their unending miseries."

I dared not come down from the track to
journey on a level with him ; but kept my head
bent low, as one that goeth reverently.

He began : " What chance or destiny, ere thy
last day be come, leadeth thee down here ?. And
who is he yonder, that showeth the way ?"

" In the untroubled life above on earth," I
answered him, " I lost my way within a valley,
or ever my days were at their full. But yester-
morn I turned my back on it : and as I turned

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again towards it, he yonder stood before me, and
by this path is he leading me towards home."

And he to me : " Follow but thy star, so shalt
thou fall not short of glory's haven, or else my
judgment was at fault in happier days. And
were it not that I had died so early, beholding
heaven so full of bounty towards thee, I should
have given thee comfort in thy labours. But
that ungrateful people, in their malice, who in
olden days came down from Fiesole, and even
still cleave to the mountain and the cliff, for thy
good deeds will make themselves thy enemies :
and good cause is there too; for the sweet fig
may not put forth its fruit amongst sour crabs.
On earth the story from old time calleth them
blind, a race given up to greed, to envy and to
pride. See that thou cleanse thee of their ways.
So niuch of honour doth thy destiny reserve for
thee, that both their factions will yearn in hunger
for thee : but the grass shall be far from the goat.
These brutes of Fiesole, let them make havoc of
themselves, nor ever touch the plant — if any such
still reareth its head in their rank soil — in which
there liveth yet the godly seed of those old
Romans, who still dwelt on, when it became the
nest of such malignity."

" Were my heart's longing all fulfilled," I
answered him, ** thou hadst not yet been out-
lawed from man's living state : for there is deeply
seated in my memory, and now doth it touch my
heart, that dear and kindly image, so fatherlike,

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that once was thine, when in the world above,
hour after hour, thou taughtest me how man may
make himself immortal : and right it were, while
life is mine, that on my lips should dwell the
gratitude I bear thee. That which thou utterest
touching my fate, I write it, and treasure it with
yet another speech, for her interpreting, who
knoweth to interpret, if I but come to her. This
much I wish should be made manifest to thee :
so conscience chide me not, for Fortune I am
ready, as she willeth. Such earnest is no new
thing in mine ears ; and so let Fortune turn her
wheel, even as she listeth, and eke the clown his
mattock."

Thereupon my Master turned him round to-
wards the right, and looked at me ; then spake :
*' He listeneth well that layeth it to heart."

Nor any the less do I go on discoursing with
Ser Brunetto, inquiring of him who are the best
known and chiefest of his companions. And he
made answer to me : ** To know of some were
well ; of the others silence were more a thing to
praise, for the time would be too short for so
much speech. Know then, in few, that all were
of the church, and scholars deeply versed, and of
great name, by one same sin defiled in the world
above. Priscian goeth with the sorry crowd, and
eke Francesco d'Accorso : and furthermore, thou
mightest have looked, if thou hadst any care for
suchlike scurf, on him who by the Servant of
Servants was translated from the Arno to Bac-

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chiglione, where he Jeft his vice-warped nerves.
More would I tell thee ; but my companionship
and speech may last no longer, for yonder I behold
fresh fumes ascending from the sand. Folk come
with whom I have no place. For my Treasure,
fain would I win thine approbation, in the which I
still live on ; I ask no more of thee."

Then he turned him back, and seemed like one
of those who at Verona run for the green flag in
the plain ; and seemed to be a winner and not a
loser in the race.

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CANTO XVI.

WAS already come into a place where
the rumbling roar of water, falling in
the other circle, broke on mine ear,
like the hum which bee-hives make ;
when three shades, speeding fast, to-
gether broke away from a troop that passed along
under the scourging torments' rain. They came
towards us, and each of them cried out : " Stay
thee there, thou that by thy raiment dost seem to
us to be one from our abandoned city." Ah me,
the scars I saw, both fresh and old, seared by the
flames upon their limbs ! Even yet it paineth me,
if I but think thereof.

My Teacher listened to their crying ; he turned
his face towards me, and he said : " Stay thy
steps awhile, it were well to show them courtesy ;
and were it not for the fire which the nature of
the place darts forth, I should say that haste was
more for thee than them."

Then, as we paused, again took they up their
old drone ; and when they reached us, they formed
themselves, all three, into a ring.

As was the wont of champions, naked and

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smeared with oil, watching for grip and vantage,
or ever they come to strokes and blows : even so,
as they wheeled around, each kept his face directed
towards us, so that the neck and feet moved ever
in contrary ways. And one of them began : " If
the unhappiness of this unstable region, and our
scorched miserable features, awake disdain for
us and for our prayers ; let our fame incline thy
heart to tell us who thou art, that all unharmed
dost press thy living feet upon the soil of Hell.
He, on whose footprints thou seest me tread, all
stripped and naked though he go, was of a higher
rank than thou dost think. He was the grandson
of good Gualdrada ; Guido Guerra was he by name,
and in his day wrought much by counsel and by
sword. The other, he that treadeth the sand
behind me, is Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, whose repu-
tation should be cherished in the world above.
And I, whose place of torment is beside them,
was Jacob Rusticucci; and, in good sooth, my
savage-tempered wife, more than aught else, hath
been my bane."

Had I been sheltered from the fire, I should
have thrown myself below into their midst, and I
believe my Teacher would have allowed it ; but
inasmuch as I should have scorched and burnt
myself, fear got the better of the good intentions
that made me eager to embrace them.

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CANTO XVI.] l^anl]e'0 C^ntiBttitt [54-82

traces fade away — when my Lord here addressed
the words to me, that made me think that some
such people as ye are were drawing near. Of
your own city am I, and ever with affection have
I rehearsed and heard the mention of your deeds
and honoured names. The bitterness forgotten,
I wend my way to find the pleasant fruit my
trusty Guide hath promised ; but to the very
centre I needs must first descend."

"Tell me,'' he then made answer to me —
" so may thy soul for many days hold o er thy
limbs its governance ; so may thy fame be bright
when thou hast passed away — do courtesy and
valour, as of old, still find a dwelling-place within
our city, or have they utterly departed from it ?
For Guglielmo Borsiere, who now hath suffered
for some little space along with us, and goeth
yonder with his comrades, sorely afflict eth us with,
his words."

" Florence, the new-come race, and fortunes
quickly won, have fostered arrogance and unre-
straint in thee, so that even now thou mournest
thereat." Thus cried I with uplifted face: and
the three, taking my words as an answer, gazed
each upon the other, as, when the truth is told,
men stand at gaze.

" If at another time," they all replied, " the
granting of another's wish come all so easy to
thee, well is it for thee, that thus speakest from
thy heart. Wherefore if thou shouldst make thy
way from out these realms of wretchedness, and

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83-114] ^^n [canto XVI.

turn to look again upon the stars in their beauty,
when it will glad thy heart to say, * It is past/
fail not to speak concerning us unto our people."

Then they broke up the ring, and, as they sped
away, their hurrying legs seemed to be wings.
An Amen could not have been uttered or ever
they were gone ; wherefore my Master thought
that it was time to go. I followed him, and we
had gone but a short way, when the sound of
water was so close to us that, had we spoken, our
voices would scarcely have been heard.

Even as that river — which at the first hath its
own channel from Monte Veso eastwards on the
left slope of the Apennine; which is called Aqua-
cheta higher up, before it leave the glen to fall
into its bed below, and as it neareth Forli beareth
the. name no longer — resoundeth from the heights
away there above San Benedetto, in tumbling
down a precipice, where there were room for
even a thousand ; in such wise did we hear this
dark-dyed flood come thundering down a jagged
steep, so loudly that in a little time it would have
hurt the ear.

I had a cord entwined about me ; and once I
thought by means of it to catch the leopard with
the spotted hide. When, as my Guide com-
manded, I had unloosed it wholly from me, I
reached it to him, gathered in a coil. Whereat
he turned him to the right, and standing back a
little from the brink, he hurled it down into the

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CANTO XVI.] 3eixttsi'» dmntt^u [1^5-^36

" Surely," I said within myself, ** some un-
looked-for thing must answer this new signal,
the which my Master followeth so closely with
his eyes."

Ah me ! how cautious should men be with
those who do not look upon the deed alone, but
with the mind's eye peer into the thoughts !

He said to me : " Ere long that which I wait
for will rise to the surface ; and what thy mind
in fancy pictureth, must soon be uncovered to thy
sight." A man should ever close his lips, as best
he may, before the truth that cometh in false-
hood's guise ; for, through no fault of his, it
putteth him to the blush. But here I have not
power to hold my peace : and. Reader, by thfe
words of this my Comedy, I swear to thee — so
may they not come short of lasting approbation
— I saw, through the dark and heavy air, a figure
swimming to the surface, a thing for wonderment
even to the stoutest heart; even as a man re-
turneth who on occasion diveth down to free an
anchor tangled in a rock, or other thing concealed
beneath the sea, who stretcheth wide his arms
above him, and gathereth up his feet.

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CANTO XVII.

|0 ! now the beast with the pointed tail,
that boreth through mountains, and
breaketh battlements and weapons ;
lo ! he that tainteth the whole world
with rottenness." Thus began my
Guide to address me, and beckoned to him to
come ashore near the end of the stony way which
we had traversed. And that uncleanly image of
deceit came on, and brought his head and chest
to land, but drew not his tail upon the bank.
His face was the face of a just man ; so fair to
look upon was his hide without, and the rest was
all a serpent's trunk. Two talons had he, shaggy
even to the armpits : his , back and breast and
both his flanks were bright with spots and rings.
Never yet did Turk or Tartar work cloth with
richer colour, groundwork and embroidery,* nor
ever was web so varied laid by Arachne on the
loom.

As barks at times rest on the shore, part in
water, part on land ; and as, away amongst the
greedy Germans, the beaver lieth in wait to wage
♦ Reading : " Non ^er mai drappo," etc.

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CANTO XVII.] I^ante> Cantiqlrsi* [22 55

his war ; so lay the loathsome monster upon the
brink that forms a belt of stone about the sand.
High in air his tail quivered in all its length,
raising aloft the venomous fork wherewith the
point was armed, even as a scorpion's is.

My Leader said : '* Now must we turn our way
a little towards the evil beast that croucheth
there." Wherefore we went down to the right,
and moved ten paces on the edge, the better to
avoid the sand and flame. And when we were
come to him, a little farther on I saw folk seated
on the sand, close by the hollow space. Here
my Master said to me : **That thou mayst carry
with thee a full and perfect knowledge of this
circle, go now and note their bearing. Let thy
speech there be but brief: until thou comest
back, I will hold parley with yonder beast, that
he may lend us his strong shoulders."

And so, still farther on the uttermost edge of
this seventh circle, I went alone, where the joy-
less folk were sitting. Their sorrow welled forth
at their eyes; with waving hands, on this side
and on that, they sought to save themselves, at
one time against the fire, at another against the
burning soil. Even so do dogs in Summer-time,
now with snout, and now with paw, when they
are bitten by fleas, or flies, or gnats. When I
turned mine eyes upon the faces of some of them,
on whom the torturing fire came pouring down,
I knew not one amongst them : but I perceived
that from the neck of each there hung a pouch,

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of a certain colour and with a certain emblem,
and it seemed as though their eyes did feed
thereon.

And as I came amongst them, looking around
me, I saw azure upon a yellow purse, that bore
the form and posture of a lion ; and then, mine
eyes' range widening, I saw another one, as red
as blood, that showed a goose more white than
butter.

And one that had his small white sack em-
blazoned with a pregnant sow in azure, said unto
me : " What dost thou in this gorge ? Away
with thee ; and since thou art still living, know
that Vitaliano my old neighbour will one day sit
here on my left. Paduan am I, amongst these
Florentines, and many a time they thunder in
mine ears, crying aloud : * Let the flower of knight-
hood come, who will bring hither the pouch with
the three he-goats !' " Then twisted he his
mouth, and thrust out his tongue, even as an ox
that licks its nostril.

And I, fearing that longer stay might vex him
who had enjoined me to make but little stay,
turned my back upon those wearied spirits.

I found my Guide, who had already mounted
on the back of the savage creature : and he said
to me : " Now be thou brave, and full of daring.
Henceforth must our downward way be by stairs
so fashioned. Get thee up in front : I wish to be
between, so that the tail may have no power to
harm thee."

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CANTO XVII.] I^eintt'et €vfmthu [^S-i^S

And even as one who is so near the quartan
fever's fit, that his nails are already Hvid, who
trembleth through all his frame if he but look
upon the shade ; such I became as his words
came to me : but his reproof wrought a sense of
shame within me, which maketh a servant brave
when a master is kind.

I sat me down on those huge shoulders : " Take
heed to put thine arms about me " — so did I wish
to say, but the words came not as I thought. But
he who at other times had bravely helped me in
face of other danger, as soon as I had mounted,
put his arms about me, and held me up: and
said : " Geryon, bestir thee now : wide be thy
circles, and gentle the descent; bethink thee of
the unwonted burden which thou dost bear."

As a bark, backwards and still backwards,
glides from its resting-place, even so he launched
himself from the shore : and as he came to feel
himself entirely free, he turned his tail to where
his breast had been, and, stretching it, he moved
it like an eel's, while with his talons he gathered
the air unto him.

Greater cause for fright I do not think there
was, when Phaeton threw down the reins, whereby

4.u^ u^«..^ — . ched, as even still is mani-

)y Icarus felt his sides grow
melting of the wax, while
;o him : ** Thou art going a
^as mine own, when I per-
ircled by the air on every
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113-^36] ^til [canto XVII.

side, and saw all view extinguished, save only of
the beast. Slowly, slowly went he floating on,
wheeling and sinking, but I could not observe it,
save that a breeze was blowing in my face, and
from below.

And now upon the right far under us, I heard
the swirling waters making a horrid din : whereat,
with eyes turned downwards, I stretched forth
my head. Then was I even more terrified at our
headlong descent : for I saw fires and heard
lamenting, that caused me to cower down tremb-
ling in every limb. And then I saw, for till then
I had not seen, our going down and going round,
by the great horrors which were approaching us
at every point.

As the falcon, long on the wing, that seeing
neither lure nor bird, causeth the falconer to
exclaim, ** Ah me ! thou rt coming down " — de-
scendeth on jaded pinion to the place from where
he soared aloft with speed, in circle after circle,
and alighteth far aloof from his keeper, sulky
and sullen : even in such wise did Geryon land
us at the bottom, down at the very base of the
jagged rock; and lightened of our bodies' load,
darted away even as an arrow from the string.

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CANTO XVIII.

I HERE is a place in Hell called Male-
bolge, of iron-coloured stone through-
out, as is the circle that doth encom-
pass it. Right in the centre of the
hateful plain gapeth a well, exceeding
broad and deep ; the fashion of which its proper
place will tell. The belt, therefore, that remaineth,
betwixt the well and the base of the steep stony
bank, is round, and hath its bottom divided into
ten valleys.

As is the outline of a place, where moat suc-
ceeding moat winds round a castle to defend its

wallc; • Qiirli -wnt; tVip form wViirh tViPCP nrpqpnfpH

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22-50] l^^ri [canto XVIII.

on behind him. Upon the right new misery
met my gaze ; new torments and new hands
to scourge, wherewith the nearest chasm was
crowded.

Down in its depths the sinners were stark
naked : from the middle point, at the near side,
they moved so as to meet us face to face, ^.nd on
the other side, as we were going, but with longer
strides : as the Romans, because of the thronging
crowd, in the year of Jubilee, have taken measures
to pass the people across the bridge ; so that, on
one side, all have their faces towards the Castle
and move towards St. Peter's ; and, on the other,
move towards the Mount.

On this side, and on that, along the loathsome
rock, I saw horned devils with great whips, who
scourged them pitilessly from behind. Oh, how
they made tbem stir their heels at the first
strokes ! And after that none waited for the
second or the third.

As I went along, mine eyes encountered one; and
straightway I exclaimed : *' Ere now have I had
my fill of seeing this one." Wherefore I stayed
my feet, that I might scan him well ; and my
kind Guide halted along with me, and consented
to my going back a little space. And that scourged
creature thought, by bending down his face^ to
hide himself, but it availed him little ; for I said :
** Thou there, that turnest thine eyes upon the

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CANTO XVIII.] ^attf^'9 dLttm^pii [507 7

Caccianimico : but what doth bring thee to such
a rasping* pickle ?"

And he made answer to me : "I tell it sore
against my will : but thy clear utterance con-
straineth me, bidding me call to mind the world
of other days. I was he who lured the lovely
Ghisola to do the Marquis's will, however the dis-
tasteful story may be told. And I am not the
only native of Bologna that sorroweth here — nay
rather, the place is filled so full of them, that
tongues so many are not this moment taught to
say * aye truly ' in all the land between Savena
and Reno's stream : and if thou dost desire or
proof or evidence of this, recall to mind our
people's greedy heart."

And as he spake the words, a demon smote
him with his thong, and cried : ** Begone, pander !
there are no women here to turn to coin."

I came back to my escort : then, after a few
steps, we reached a place where a craggy ridge
projected from the bank. This we ascended with
but little difficulty, and turning to the right upon
its jagged brow, we went our way from out of
those everlasting circles.

When we were come to where it gapes below,
to form a passage for the scourged ones, my
Guide said : " Stay thy step, and let the vision
of these other sin-born souls come full upon thee,
whose features up to this thou hast not looked

* Compare Aristophanes, Pax, KoWvpav Kal kovSvXov o^j/ov
Itt' dvry.

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77-107] ^^ti [canto XVIII.

upon, by reason of their having gone as we were
going."

From the old bridge we watched the train that
came towards us on the other side, and whom
the whip drave on in fashion as before.

My gentle Master, or ever I had asked him, said
to me : " Mark yonder towering one that cometh
on, and seemeth not to shed a tear for all his
suflfering. How like a king's the form he still
retaineth ! Jason is he, who by his bravery and
cunning deprived the Colchians of the ram.
He passed by Lemnos' isle, when that those
daring women, knowing no touch of mercy, had
done to death their every male. There, with
tokens and with winsome words, did he beguile
the maiden Hypsipyle, who had herself erewhile
beguiled the rest. Pregnant and love-lorn, he
left her there — such crime hath doomed him to
such punishment ; and for Medea too is ven-
geance being taken. With him there go all who
practise the like deceit : let this much be enough
for thee to know of the first valley, and eke of
those whom it doth grind within it.'*

We had already come to where the narrow
path crosseth the second bastion, and formeth
of it the buttress of another arch. From that
point forward we heard folk shrieking in the
neighbour chasm, and snorting through their
nostrils, and beating themselves with their hands.
The banks were coated over with a mould,
through the vapour from below, which lay like

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CANTO XVIII.] ^attt^*0 ^tftnttfu [107-136

paste upon them, repugnant both to eyes and
nose.

So deep sunk is the bottom, that the eye failed
to reach it before we climbed to the crown of the
arch, where the ridge is sheerest. Thither we
came, and looking down from thence into the
depth, I saw a crowd stifled in filth which seemed
to have come from human privies : and while I
searched down in it with mine eye, one met my
sight whose head was so begrimed with ordure, that
it were hard to say if he were clerk or layman.

He shouted to me : " Why dost thou hunger
so to bend thy gaze on me more than upon the
others in the filth ?"

And I made answer to him : " Because, if
rightly I remember, I have ere now beheld thee
before thy locks were moistened: and thou art
Alessio Interminei of Lucca : and that is why I
scan thee more than all the rest."

And then he spake, smiting his poll the while :
**The flattery, of which my tongue grew never
tired, hath sunk me here so low."

And after that my Guide said : ** Thrust out
thy face a little farther forward, so that thine eyes
may fall full upon the features of yonder foul and
slattern strumpet, who scratcheth herself there
with filth-begrimed nails, now grovelling, and now
standing on her feet. It is Thais, the harlot, who
made answer to her paramour, when he said :
* Have I great thanks of thee?' * Nay, marvellously
great/ And let so much content our eyes."

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fo

en
hs
O

si]

be
ro
wi
sti
th
nc
su
de

tr

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CANTO XIX.] ^atdsi'^ €omttfU [24-51

the rest was all within. Both the feet of all were
aflame ; which caused their joints to writhe with
force so great, that they would have snapped
straw-ropes and cords in sunder. As on things
oiled a flame is wont to play upon the outer sur-
face only, so was it here from heel to toe.

** Master," I said, ** who is he that struggleth
there, writhing more than all the others that are
his comrades, and whom a ruddier flame is wither-
ing ?" And he made answer to me : " If thou
dost wish that I should take thee down by yonder
bank that lieth lower, thou shalt hear from his own
lips of himself and of his wrongs."

And I replied : " Whatever pleaseth thee, to
me is welcome: thou art my lord, and thou
knowest that I shall not oppose thy will, and
well thou knowest too the thoughts that are not
spoken."

Then we ascended the fourth bastion : we
turned, and went down to the left into the very
depth pierced all with holes and narrow.

Nor did my gentle Master suffer me to leave his
side, until he brought me close up to the hole in
which he lay whose legs made manifest his agony.

" Whoever thou art, unhappy shade," I then
began, ** that hast thy upper part below, fixed
even as a stake, if thou hast power to do so,
speak a word."

I stood like unto a friar that shriveth a
treacherous assassin who, when thrust into the
earth, calleth him back, whereby death is delayed.

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52-8i] l^tli [canto XIX.

And he cried out : ** Art thou already there and
on thy feet, Boniface, art thou already there and
on thy feet ? By many years hath the writing
played me false. Art thou so early glutted with
the wealth for sake of which thou didst not hesi-
tate to seize by treachery our Lady Fair, and
then to labour in her wreck."*

And I became like unto those that stand as if
confounded, by reason of not comprehending
what is said to them, and knowing not what to
answer.

Then Virgil spake : ** Say to him quickly, * I
am not he, I am not he for whom thou takest
me.' " And I replied even as I was bidden.
Wherefore the spirit twisted his feet convulsively :
then with a sigh, and in a voice of sorrow,
he said to me : " What, then, dost thou seek of
me ? If thou art so concerned to know who I
may be, that for this thou hast passed the bank,
know that I wore the Mighty Mantle : and in all
truth I was the She-Bear's son, and all so eager
to advance my bear-cubs, that wealth I pocketed
above, and here myself. Below my head are the
rest dragged along, who were before me in their
simony, crushed into the openings in the rock.
I too shall drop below, when he arriveth for whom
I took thee, what time I put my hasty question
to thee. But even how have I had my feet roast-
ing and have been standing thus upon my head,
for longer space than he shall have to stand when
* " Macbeth," i. 3, 114.
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CANTO XIX.] 3etnft'B (ti^mttfu [81-114

planted with his feet aflame. For after him will
come one of more odious deeds, from out of the
West, a shepherd, stranger to all law, and one
that well may cover him and me. A second Jason
will he be, of whom we read in Maccabees : and
as his king was indulgent to that priest, even so
shall he that ruleth France be unto this one."

I know not if I was foolhardy here, for my only

answer to him was in this strain : ** Come, tell me

now what price our Lord required of Holy Peter

or ever he gave the keys into his wardship ?

Surely he looked not for aught save * Follow

Me !' Nor Peter, nor the others, asked gold or

silver of Matthias when he was chosen to fill the

place th^ guilty soul had lost. Therefore stay on,

for fitly art thou punished ; guard well the ill-got

pelf that gave thee courage against Charles. And

were it not that reverence for the heavenly keys,

the which thou heldest in happy life, even here

forbiddeth me, I should use words far heavier ;

5 thine maketh the world to

e good beneath the feet, and

ly upon high. Shepherds like

gelist had in mind, when she

he waters was seen of him

tion with the kings ; she that

J seven heads, and had ten

ler glory while chastity found

ouse. Ye have made you a

silver; and in what do ye

later, save that he oflfereth his

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1 14-133] ^^U [canto XIX.

orisons to one, and ye to an hundred ? Ah, Con-
stantine ! of how much ill was cause, not thy
conversion, but the dowry the first rich father of
the Church received of thee !"

And whilst I spake these words, whether stung
by wrath, or consciousness of sin, he plunged
wildly with both his feet. I well believe my
Guide was pleased, with such approving mien
did he listen throughout to the sound of the
words of truth I uttered. Therefore with both
his arms he took me unto him: and when he
had me wholly on his breast, he went up again
by the way he had come down.

Nor grew he weary of holding me so pressed
to him, until he bore me to the summit of the
arch, which forms a causeway from the fourth to
the fifth bastion. There he laid his burden
gently down, all gentleness upon the steep and
craggy ridge, which would have been a difficult
way even for a goat : and then another valley
opened on my view.

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CANTO XX.

OW must I sing of other tortures, and
give forth matter for the twentieth
canto of the first canticle, which is
concerned with those below.

I was already all intent in gazing
down into the depth opened before me, which was
so wet with streaming tears of agony: and through
the winding valley I saw folk coming, in silence
and with weeping, at the same pace at which
the litany-procession moveth in our world. As
my sight went farther down upon them, each of
them seemed to be distorted in wondrous fashion,
from the chin to where the chest hath its begin-
ning : for their face was turned back upon the
loins, and they must needs go backwards; for
power to look before them was taken from them.
Perchance ere now there have been some so
twisted out of shape through stroke of palsy;
but I have never looked upon the like, nor do I
think it can be so.

Reader, so may God grant thee to profit by
what thou readest, consider in thy heart, how I
could keep my face unwet with tears, when close

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22-51] ^^lt [canto XX

beside me I beheld man's image so disnatured,
that their eyes' tear-drops bathed their hinder
parts where they divided.

I wept indeed, leaning against a rock on the
stony ridge, so overcome, that my Guide said to
me : ** Art thou too like the other fools ? Here
pity liveth but when it is truly dead. Who is
more lost to righteousness than he whose pity is
awakened at the decree of God ? Lift up thy
head, lift it up, and look on him for whom the
earth gaped wide before the Theban people's
eyes, whereat they all cried aloud, * Whither dost
thou rush, Amphiaraus ? Why dost thou leave
the fight ?' Yet never stayed he in his headlong
leap, into the chasm, down even to Minos, whose
grasp is laid on all. See how he hath his
shoulders made a chest for him ; for that he
yearned to see too far before him, his eyes are
now turned behind, and all his steps are back-
ward.

** Behold Tiresias who changed his outward
form, when having been a male he was turned
into a woman, altering his every limb ; and then,
or ever he found again his manhood's plumes, he
needs must lay his rod a second time upon the
twin coiled snakes. Aruns is he whose back is
towards the other's belly, who had a cave for his
dwelling-place amidst the white marble on the

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CANTO XX.] I^ani^'sc tfmn^bs L5281

And she that covereth her breasts, the which thou
seest not, she with the flowing locks, whose hair
is all at the other side, was Manto, who went her
roaming quest through many lands, then rested
in the place where I was born. Wherefore I wish
that for a little space thou should st give ear to
me.

** After her father died, and Bacchus' favoured
city was brought to slavery, she wandered for a
long time through the world. There lieth, in
beauteous Italy above, a lake, close by the foot
of the Alps that northwards of the Tyrol shut in
the German's land, and it beareth the name of
Benacus. Through a thousand streams, I believe,
and more, between Garda and Val Camonica, the
Pennine Alp is watered by the rivers which gather
to rest within that lake. In its midst there is a spot
where, if they came that way, the Trentine Shep-
herd and Brescia's too, aye, and Verona's, might
grant their benison. There sitteth Peschiera,
fortress fair and strong, to hold the Brescian and
the Bergamese at bay, where all around the shore
is lowest. And there whatever water may not
rest within Benacus' bosom, must needs descend
and make itself a river down through the verdant
meads. Soon as the water maketh head to flow,
it is no longer called Benacus, but Mincio down
to Governo, where it falleth into the Po. Ere-
long its course hath run, it cometh upon a spread-
ing plain, where opening out it maketh a marsh of
it, unhealthy often— such its wont — in summer-
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time. Journeying towards this place, the heart-
less maiden spied land amidst the fen, where
cultivation there was none, and never dwellers
came. There, that she might shun all inter-
course with man, she with her menials made her
restmg-place, to ply her arts ; and there she lived,
and left her soulless corpse. After a time the
inhabitants that were scattered through the
places around, gathered them together to the
spot, for it was strong by reason of the marsh by
which it was surrounded. They raised their city
over her lifeless bones ; and, after her who had
first chosen the place, they called it Mantua,
seeking no other augury. Time was its people
were more crowded within its walls, before the
madness of Casalodi was fooled by Pinamonte's
treachery. Wherefore I do enjoin thee, that, if
thou hearest ever that my native city had other
origin, let no lying tale prevail against the truth."

And I : " Master, the words thou speakest are
to my mind so full of truth, and take my faith so
strongly, that other words would be to me but as
burnt embers. But tell me of the folk that pass
before us, if thou beholdest any of them worthy
of note ; for upon that alone is my mind keenly
bent."

Then spake he unto me : ** He yonder, from
whose cheeks the beard is streaming over his
swarthy shoulders, was an augur, what time the
land of Greece was left so bare of males that
they were hardly found even in the cradles ; and

lOI

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CANTO XX.] 9ant^*$ €tim^Pu [ 1 1 o- 1 30

with Calchas he gave the word in Aulis to cut
the first cable. Euripylus the name he bore ;
and so my lofty tragic strain doth somewhere
sing of him : well dost thou know it, that knowest
its every line. The other yonder, he so spare of
flank, was Michael Scot, who knew full well the
juggling art of magic wiles. See there, Guido
Bonatti ; see Asdente, that now were fain he had
been constant to his leather and his thread, but
all too late repenteth. See the unhappy wonien
who left the needle, the shuttle and the spindle,
and took to fortune-telling ; with image and with
herbs they wrought their sorceries.

** But forward now, for Cain with his thorns
already holdeth the confines of both hemispheres,
and toucheth the waves beneath Seville, and only
yesternight the moon was full : thou must needs
well remember it, for ere now she did thee no
small service in the deep wood."

So spake he to me, and as he spake we went
our way.

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CANTO XXI.

ND so we went from bridge to bridge,
discoursing of other things the which
my Comedy is not concerned to tell
of; and gained the summit, when we
halted to look upon the other chasm
of Malebolge, and other unheeded lamentations ;
and I beheld it in all its wondrous darkness.

As in the dockyard of the Venetians the
clammy pitch doth boil, to calk their battered
ships that are not fit to sail ; and in the interval,
one buildeth his vessel anew, and one plugs the
sides of her that hath made many voyages ; one
hammers at the prow, another at the poop ; some
fashion oars, and some are twisting cables ;
another mends a foresail and a mizen : even so
down there was boiling, not through the agency
of fire, but God's contrivance, a curdling pitch
that covered with its slime the bank on every
side. I saw it, but I saw naught else in it save
the bubbles which the boiling raised, its huge up-
surging and shrinking back again.
While I was gazing down intently, my Guide,
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CANTO XXI.] ^anl^*» C^m^tTK [2351

exclaiming, ** Look out, look out T' drew me
towards him from where I stood. Then turned
I back, like one impatient to behold what he
should shun, and whom a sudden terror doth
unman, so that, for all his looking, he stayeth
not his flight ; and behind us I beheld a swarthy
demon coming at a run along the summit of the
ridge. Ah me, how savage was his aspect ! How
cruel seemed he as he came, with wings out-
spread, and nimble on his feet ! Astride his
shoulders, sharp and towering as they were, a
sinner was planted, while he held firmly grasped
the tendon of each foot.

" Ho, Malebranche !" so called he from our
bridge, " mark there one of the Fathers of Santa
Zita : down with him ; for I am going back again
unto the town that is well stocked with them.
There is no man there but is a barrator, save
only Bonturo : * yea ' is turned to * nay ' for money
there."

He threw him down, and turned back along
the stony ridge ; and never yet was mastiff un-
leashed in such wild haste to track a thief.

The other sunk, and rose again, rolled in a
heap.

But the demons who were beneath the cover
of the bridge cried out : " The Holy Countenance
hath never a place down here : the swimming
here is of another fashion than that in Serchio's
stream : wherefore if thou wouldst keep thee from
our gaffs, come not above the surface of the pitch."
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S2-8l] ^ttt [canto XXI.

Then drave they into him the teeth of more
than an hundred prongs, and said : " Here must
one trip it under cover, that, if thou hast the wit,
thou mayst pilfer on the sly. Even in such wise
do cooks compel their menials to thrust the flesh
down in the caldron with their hooks, so that it
may not float."

My gentle Master said to me : " That it may
not be seen that thou art here, crouch down be-
hind a crag, that thou mayst have a hiding-place ;
and whatsoever onset may be made on me, have
thou no fear, for I have reckoned on all this, as
once before I have engaged in riot of this kind."

Then went he on beyond the bridge's head, and
as he reached the summit of the sixth ridge, he
had good need to show a steadfast front.

With the same fury, the same tempestuous
rush, wherewith dogs leap out upon a beggar,
who, where he stoppeth, seeketh at once for
alms, leaped out those Demons from beneath
the arch, and turned upon him all their pikes.
But he cried out : " Let none of you be insolent.
Before your hook lay hold on me, let one of you
step forth to hear me, and then deliberate whether
ye shall gaff me."

They all cried out : ** Let Malacoda be the one
to go." Then one advanced, while the others
kept their place, and came to him, saying:
" What can this profit thee ?"

'* Dost thou believe," my Master said, ** that
thou couldst see me reach this place, unscathed

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till now by all your weapons, without the aid of
Will Divine and favouring destiny ? Forbid me
not to pass, for it is willed in Heaven that I
should show another this woody way."

Then was his pride so humbled, that he let the
hook fall at his feet, and spake to the others :
" Wound him not now.'* And my Guide called
out to me : " Thou that sittest squatting there
amongst the crags about the bridge, return to me
now without fear of injury." Wherefore I arose
and quickly came to him ; and the Demons one
and all advanced, so that I trembled lest they
should break the truce. And even thus had I
ere then beheld the soldiery that marched out
from Caprona under treaty, in trepidation as they
saw themselves amidst their thronging foemen.

I pressed myself close up beside my Guide,
nor ever moved mine eyes from off their threaten-
ing visages.

They dropped their prongs and spake one with
another : " Shall I nick him in the back ?" and
answered : ** Aye, let him have a prod." But the
Demon who had held parley with my Guide turned
sharply round and said : " Stay, Scarmiglione,
stay." And then he said to us : " One cannot
journey farther by this ridge, for the sixth arch is
down, all shattered to its base : and if it be thy
pleasure, nevertheless, to go forward, go up by
yonder cavern : hard by there is another ridge
that doth afford a passage. Yesterday, five hours
later than the present time, twelve hundred and
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sixty-six years had run their course, since the
road was blocked this way. I am sending yonder
a company of my men to see if anyone be taking
the air: go with them, for they will not harm
you. Up, Alichino and Calcabrina," so he began ;
" thou, too, Cagnazzo, and let Barbariccia com-
mand the ten. Let Libicocco also come, and
Draghignazzo; Ciratto with his tusks, and Graffia-
cane, and Farfarello and the tameless Rubicante ;
search around the boiling slime ; be these under
safe conduct as far as the other crag, which still
unbroken spans the chasms."

** Ah me ! Master, what is this I see ?" said I.
" Prithee let us go alone without the escort, if
thou dost know the way ; for, as to me, I have
no longing for it. If thou art quick of appre-
hension, as is thy wont, dost thou not see they
snarl and show their teeth, and their brows
threaten us with mischief?"

And he made answer to me : ** I would not
have thee terrified : so let them snarl to their
hearts* content, for it is at the boiling wretches
they are doing so."

They wheeled along the left bank ; but ere they
did, not one of them but thrust his tongue far out
between his teeth towards their chieftain by way
of signal : and he had answered, trumpeting from

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CANTO XXII.

HAVE ere now seen troopers move
their camp, begin the assault, and
muster in review, and at times flying
in retreat ; and, Aretines, upon your
land have I seen skirmishers, and I
have seen foragers on the chase, the clash of
tourney, and the shock of jousts, now at trumpet-
sound, now at the sound of bells, at beat of drum,
and beacon from a castle, at signals of our own,
and from abroad ; but troopers never did I see,
nor footmen, nor ship that setteth sail by sign
from land or star, go forth to such outlandish
bugle-sound.

We went upon our way with the ten Demons —
what savage comrades 1 but with the holy in the
church, and with the guzzlers in the tavern. My
thoughts were all intent upon the pitch, that I might
probe the chasm's every phase, and eke that of
the folk that were burning within it. As dolphins
when they arch their backs, and warn mariners
to bethink them of getting their vessel safe to
shore ; so, from time to time, to make their suffer-

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22-54] ^^ll [canto XXII.

ing less, would some sinner show his back, and
swifter than lightning disappear again.

As in a ditch frogs sit near the water's edge
with only mouth projecting, so that their legs and
all their body are hid from view ; such was the
posture of the sinners everywhere. But on the
approach of Barbariccia, like frogs they drew
them down again beneath the boiling surface.
One I saw, and even now my heart doth shudder
at it, tarrying, even as it will happen that one
frog stays behind while another darts below.
And Graffiacane, who was the next beside him,
struck his gaff into his pitchy hair and dragged
him up, so that he seemed to me an otter. Ere
this I knew the names of the whole troop, so
closely had I marked them when they were being
chosen, and listened how they called to one
another.

** Rubicante,*' so shouted all the devilish crowd
in chorus, " into him with thy claws, and flay
him V* And I said : " Master mine, discover if
thou canst who is the wretch that hath fallen into
the clutches of his enemies."

My Guide went close beside him, and asked
him whence he came ; and he made answer : " In
Navarre's kingdom was I born. My mother sent
me to serve as henchman to a lord, for she had
borne me to a ne'er-do-weel, the waster of him-
self and of his substance. Afterwards I was
servitor to good King Thibault, with whom I
set myself to practise barratry, the reckoning for
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which I render in this burning." And Ciratto,
from out whose mouth projected at each side a
tusk, as it were a boar's, gave him cause to feel
the ripping power of one of them. The mouse
had fallen among pitiless cats : but Barbariccia
put his arms about him and said : " Back there,
whilst I am hugging him,'' and turned his face
towards my Master. " Question him yet again/'
he said, ** if thou hast wish to know more of him,
before some other quite undo him."

Wherefore my Guide said : " Npw tell me, of
the other guilty ones under the pitch, knowest
thou any that is Latian-born ?" And he made
answer : " Only a little while ago I parted from
one who was a neighbour to their land. Would
that I were immersed again like him, that I might
fear neither their claw nor hook."

And Libicocco said : " We have endured too
much," and with his pike he took him by the
arm, in such sort that he tore away a piece of
flesh, and bore it off. Draghignazzo, too, was
eager to clutch at his legs below; so much so
that the leader of the ten wheeled round and
round with scowling glance.

When they were quieted a little, my Guide
straightway inquired of him who was still gazing
at his wound : " Who was it from whom thou
sayest that thou didst make a luckless parting to
come ashore ?" And he made answer : " It was
Brother Gomita, he of Gallura, vessel of all fraud,
who held the foemen of his lord within the hollow
no

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of his hand, and acted by them so, that one and
all they praise him for it. He pocketed their
money, and without more ado — as is his word —
he let them go ; and in his other offices as
well, he was no petty but a princely barrator.
Along with him Dan Michael Zanche of Logo-
doro spendeth his days, and their tongues never
tire of speaking of Sardinia. Ah me ! look
at that other snarling there. I would speak
on, but fear he maketh him ready to tear my
scurf."

And the grand marshal, turning to Farfarello,
who was rolling his eyes to aim a blow, exclaimed :
** Stand off, accursed bird !''

"If ye have any wish to see or hear Tuscans
or Lombards," the scared one then resumed, " I
will make them come. But let the Malebranche
stand back somewhat, so that they may not dread
their vengeance ; and I, sitting where I sit, for
one that I am, will make seven come by whistling,
as our habit is to do when one of us getteth out."
Hearing these words, Cagnazzo raised his snout,
tossing his head, and said : " Hark to the crafty
trick he hath devised that he may dive below."
Whereat the other, who had great store of cun-
ning devices, made answer : " Too crafty indeed
I am, in bringing deeper torments on my com-
rades." Alichino could not restrain himself, and
gainsaying all the rest, he said to him : ** If thou
goest below, I will not chase thee at a gallop, but
flap my wings above the pitch. Leave the high
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ground, and let the bank be a screen, that we may
see if thou alone art able for us all."

Reader, of new sport shalt thou hear. Each
of them turned his eyes towards the other side,
he being the first who was least prepared to do
it. Well chose the Navarrese his opportunity;
he steadied his feet upon the ground, and in a
moment leaped and freed himself from their de-
signs. Whereupon they each were suddenly
stung to the quick, but he the most, who was
the cause of their miscarriage : wherefore he
rose and shouted: "Thou art caught!" But
little it availed, for wings could not outspeed the
dread of harm.

The other went below ; and he, turning his
breast aloft, flew off. Not otherwise doth the
duck dive quickly down, what time the falcon
draweth near ; and he cometh up crestfallen and
in anger.

Calcabrina, maddened at the trick, kept close
behind him in his flight, longing that the other
should get off, for a quarrel's sake. And as the
barrator vanished from their sight, he straight-
way turned his talons on his comrade, and
grappled with him above the moat. But the
other showed himself a sturdy sparrow-hawk
in clawing him, and both fell plump into the
boiling pool. A sudden separator was the heat ;
but, for all that, they could not rise, so fast their
wings were glued.

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four of them fly off to the other side with all their
prongs ; and with great speed, this way and that,
they hurried down to their appointed place. They
thrust their hooks towards the entangled ones,
who by this time were scalded under the pitchy
scum. And thus engaged* we left them.

♦ Compare :

** O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engag'd."

" Hamlet," iii. 3.

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CANTO XXIII.

silence, alone, and without com-
panions, went we along, the one in
front, the other following, even as
the Minor Friars go their way. This
conflict turned my thoughts tOiEspp s
fable, where he telleth of the frog and the rat : for
mo and issa* are not more alike than one is to the
other, if but the ending and beginning be weighed
with heedful mind. And as one thought springeth
from out another, so was there born from this a
second that made the terror twofold which I at
first conceived. My thoughts were on this wise :
" These demons have been baffled by us, with
injury too, and insult of such kind that I believe
it sorely galleth them. If anger, then, be heaped
upon ill-will, they will come after us more filled
with savagery than is a dog towards the hare he
seizeth."

I had already felt my every hair to stand on
end through terror, and stood gazing intently

* Mo (Latin modd) and issa {hoc ipsa hora) are still used
in Lombardy and Tuscany. They both mean " now."

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behind me, when I said: "Master, if with all
speed thou dost not hide thyself and me, I dread
the Malebranche : they are already on our track :
so vivid is my fancy of them, that even now I
hear them."

And he made answer: "Were I a mirror-
glass, I could not draw more quickly thine out-
ward image to me, than I receive the impress
of that within thee. Only this moment thy
thoughts came mingling with my own, alike in
their nature and their semblance, in such sort
that from both I have made .one resolve. If
it so be that the incline upon the right doth
slope so as to allow our going down to the next
chasm, we shall escape the chase thy fancy
pictureth."

Scarce had he made an end of disclosing his
resolution, when I beheld them coming with out*
stretched wings, no distance off, intent on seizing
us. Quickly my Guide caught me up, even as a
mother that is awakened by a noise, and seeth
close beside her the kindling flames, that taketh
up her child and flieth forth, nor ever pauseth,
having so much more care for him than for her-
self, that but a night-robe is about her. And
down from the shoulder of the stony steep, upon
his back he slid along the shelving rock, that
closeth one side of the neighbour chasm. Nevel"
more swiftly through a channel did water glide,
to turn a latid-miirs wheel, what time it draweth
nearest to the paddles, than did my Master alpng
1X5

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CANTO XXIII.] ^atttC*0 €i>vxt^ [49-80

that slope, bearing me on his breast as though I
were his son and not his comrade.

Scarce were his feet upon the bed of the depth
below, when the demons were on the eminence
above us ; but he knew never a thought of harm ;
for the high Providence whose will it was to set
them as warders of the fifth abyss, deprived them
all of any power to leave it.

Down in it we came upon a painted tribe, that
kept going round with steps exceeding slow, utter-
ing lamentations, and in appearance jaded and
crushed in spirit. They carried cloaks with cowls
down on their eyes, and wrought in the shape
that they make for the monks in Cologne. On
the surface they are gilded, even to dazzling;
but lined throughout with lead, and of such
weight, that those which Frederick made men
wear were light as straw. O ever-wearying robe !
We turned us once again, still to the left, going
as they went, and wholly taken with their sad
complaining: but the jaded souls came on so
slowly by reason of the weight, that every step
we moved our company was new. Wherefore I
said unto my Guide: "Find someone who may
be known by deed or name, and even as we go
move thine eyes about." And one who under-
stood the Tuscan speech cried out behind us:
" Stay your feet, ye that speed so swiftly through
the dusky air: peradventure thou mayst learn
from me that which thou lookest for."

Whereupon my Guide turned him round, and
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80-1 lOj l|^n [canto XXIII.

spake : **Halt, and then go forward at his pace."
I stopped, and saw two by their looks display
much eagerness of mind to join me; but load
and narrow way retarded them.

When they came up, long while they gazed at
me with sidelong glance, albeit with never a word.
Then turned they to one another and spake
amongst themselves : " He seemeth, by the move-
ment of his throat, to be alive : and if they have
tasted death, what privilege alloweth them to go
uncovered by the weighty gown?" Then they
bespake me: *'0 Tuscan, that art come to the
gathering- place of mourning hypocrites, disdain
not thou to tell us who thou art." And I made
answer to them : " By Arno's beauteous stream,
in the great city, I was born and grew, and have
not left the body which all along was mine. But
who are ye, adown whose cheeks such copious
tears as I behold are coursing? And what the
torment that is upon 370U, which gleameth so ?"

And one made answer to me: ** The orange
hoods are lined so thick with lead, that the weight
causeth their scales to creak even as they do.
Merry Friars we were, and Bolognese : I called
by name Catalano, and he Loderingo; and by
thy city chosen at one time, as only one is taken,
as a rule, to guard its peace ; and we were such,
that traces of our ways may still be found around
Gardingo."

I began : ** O Friars, the ill ye wrought "

but more I said not, for there met my eyes one
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crucified with three stakes to the earth. When
he beheld me, he writhed in every limb, puffing
and sighing into his beard. And the friar Cata-
lano, who noticed what he did, said to me : " That
pierced one on whom thou gazest, counselled the
Pharisees that it was meet to put one man to
torture for the people. Athwart the way and
naked he lieth on the road, as thou seest, and
cannot choose but feel, or ever they go by, the
weight of all who pass. And in no different
fashion his father-in-law is stretched in this
gullet, and all who formed that Council, which
was a fountain-head of evil for the Jews."

Then saw I Virgil standing in wonderment
above the one that was racked with such in-
dignity upon the cross in the exile that hath no
ending.

Then he bespake the friar in words like these :
"Disdain not, if so it be allowed thee, to tell us if
any opening lieth to the right by which we both
may get from hence, without compelling some of
the black angels to come and rescue us from this
depth.''

Then he made answer : " Nearer than thou dost
hope, there is a rock that jutteth from the great
encircling wall, and passeth bridgewise over all
the vales of torture, save that in this one it is
broken, and doth not span it. Ye may go up by
'' ^ ' '• ' hich lie against the side,

3 bottom."

3 with head bent low, then
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said : " He told us falsely what we wished to
know, he that spiketh the sinners yonder." And
the friar said : " Oft at Bologna have I heard ere
now the Devil's vices told, and amongst them,
that he is a liar and the father of falsehood."

And then my Guide passed on with hurried
strides, somewhat disturbed with anger as he
seemed ; so I betook me from the heavy-laden
ones, following the prints of his dear feet.

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CANTO XXIV.

I N that season of the opening year, when
the sun doth* warm his rays beneath
Aquarius, and nights are already on
the wane when half the day is past ;*
when the hoar frost on earth doth
counterfeit its snowy sister's image, though short
while endureth the fashion of its feathery form :t
the cottager whose store of fodder is running low,
riseth and looketh forth, and seeth the land all
white; whereat he smiteth upon his thigh: he
turneth again into his house, and goeth hither
and thither complaining, Uke a wretch that
knoweth not what to do : then cometh he forth

* The day was reckoned from sunset to sunset
t I cannot bring myself to agree with the many commen-
tators who in this somewhat difficult passage take '* penna "
to mean " pen,'' with the objects of extending in a fanciful
direction the idea supposed to be contained in " assempra."
The use of " penna" in the wider sense in which I have trans-
lated it is not without justification. Compare :
" E prima poi ribatter gli convenne
Li duo serpenti avvolti con la verga,
Che riavesse le maschili^^««^." — Inf. xx. 43.

And

* Diss* ei movendo quell* oneste piume "
(Of Cato's white beard). — Purg. i. 42.

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12-42] Jl^n [canto XXIV.

again, and is filled with hope, beholding how the
world hath quickly changed its face ; and taketh
up his staff and driveth forth his flocks to pasture.
Even in such wise did my Master cause me to
droop in spirit, what time I saw his brows grow
troubled so ; and even with such-like speed came
the plaster to the wound. For soon as we had
reached the shattered bridge, my Guide turned
him towards me with that gentle look which I
had first beheld at the mountain's base. He
opened wide his arms, after some resolution come
to in his mind, first gazing fixedly at the broken
fragments, and caught me up. And as one who
worketh and pondereth, who seemeth ever to
forestall events ; so he, the while he raised me up
towards the top of one rocky ledge, kept his eye
upon another jag, saying : ** Up over this one
clamber next, but first try whether it be such
that it will bear thy weight."

It was no road for one encumbered with a
cloak, for we had hardly power to make our way
aloft from jutting crag to crag, light though he
was, and I pushed upwards. And were it not that
within this enclosure the steep was shorter than
in the other, I know not about him, but I full
surely had been overcome. But because Mala-
bolge doth all slope towards the entrance of the
lowermost gorge, each valley is so ordered in its
nature, that one side riseth and the other goeth
down. Nevertheless we came at last to the spot
from where the outmost rock is wrenched away.
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The breath was so exhausted from my lungs, when
I was on the summit, that further power I had
none, but to seat me the moment I had reached
it.

" Tis thus that thou must now shake thyself
free from sloth," my Master said, " for seated on
down, or under coverlet, man cometh not to fame ;
unattended by which whoso doth spend his days,
leaveth such traces of himself on earth, as smoke
in air or foam on water : wherefore bestir thyself ;
conquer thy weariness with the courageous soul
that conquereth in every fight, if it so be that it is
not dragged down by the body's weight. A longer
ladder must yet be climbed : it is not yet enough
to have escaped from these : if thou dost take my
meaning, be now thy deeds such that they may
profit thee."

Then I arose, with show of better store of
breath than what I felt possessed of, and said :
" Proceed, for I am strong and full of spirit."

Up the cliff we took our way, all rocky, narrow
and difficult as it was, and steeper far withal than
that we had ascended. I spoke as I went on, that
I might not seem faint ; whereat a voice came up
from the next abyss, but ill adapted for articulate
words. I know not what it said, although I was
already on the ridge of the arch that spans the
place : but he that spake seemed to be stirred to
wrath. I had turned downwards ; but living eyes
could not penetrate to the depths by reason of the
darkness : wherefore I said : " Master, make thy
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73-103] 1|l[ir [CANTO XXIV.

way to the other ring, and let us go down the
bastion : for as I hear from where I am and fail to
understand, so do I see below but can no shape
distinguish."

" Other answer than performance," he said, " I
give thee none : for fair request should be attended
by action without words."

Down the bridge we came, by its extremity,
where it is joined with the eighth ridge, and then
was the chasm laid open before me : and in it I
beheld a noisome swarm of snakes, and so out-
landish in appearance, that even now the recol-
lection maketh my blood to curdle. Let Libya
vaunt no longer with its sand ; for though it
breedeth Chelydri, Jaculi and Phareae, and
Cenchres and Amphisbaena, plagues never yet
so many or so baneful did it show, with all the
Ethiope's land to boot, and that which lieth by
the Red Sea.

Amidst this savage and most gruesome crowd,
people were hurrying naked and in terror, with
never a hope of hiding-place or heliotrope. They
had their hands bound fast with snakes behind
them, which pierced their loins with head and
tail, and were fastened into knots in front. And
lo ! on one who was beside us, a serpent sprang,
that pierced him through just where the neck and
shoulders join. Nor "O" nor **I" was ever

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CANTO XXIV.] 9anle^0 €mni)}i]i [103-131

ground, again the ashes gathered themselves
together, and of themselves re-formed at once
into the self-same creature.

Even so, great poets tell us, the Phoenix dieth,
and springeth to birth again, when it cometh to the
five-hundredth year. Nor herb nor grain doth it
consume in its life, but only tears of incense and
of spice : and nard and myrrh are its last cere-
ments.

And even as one that falleth, and knoweth not
how, through influence of Demon that beareth
him to earth, or other wasting power that crippleth
man ; who, rising, looketh around him in amaze-
ment, all bewildered by the appalling affliction
that hath come upon him, and gazing sigheth:
such was the sinner after he had risen. O power
of God, how terrible it is ! that doth inflict such
strokes by way of vengeance !

My guide then asked him who he was ; where-
upon he made reply : ** 'Tis but a little while ago
since I came down from Tuscany, falling like the
rain into this savage gorge. Brute life, not human,
was my delight, mule that I was : I am Vanni
Fucci, a beast, and Pistoia was a lair well worthy
of me."

And I said to my Guide : f* Bid him not to go,
and ask what sin it was that drave him down here,
for ere now have I seen him a man of blood and
wrath."

And the sinner, who understood, made no pre-
tence, but with his thoughts and eyes upon me,
124

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132-151] T^till [canto XXIV.

grew all suffused with a pitiable blush of shame.
Then spake he : " That thou hast found me in the
misery wherein thou dost behold me, giveth me
deeper pain than the moment when I was taken
from the other life. I cannot deny thee what thou
askest : I am thrust down so far, for that I stole
from out the sacristy its goodly garniture ; and
falsely ere to-day was the blame laid at another's
door. But that thou mayst not revel at such sight,
if thou shouldst ever get from out the shadowy
domains, open thine ears to my prediction, and
hear: Pistoia is first drained of the Neri; then
Florence setteth up anew her people and her rule.
From Val di Magra Mars bringeth down his war-
cloud, which is enwrapt in darksome vapours, and
with the whirlwind's angry rush, upon Piceno's
plain the fight must needs be fought : whence
suddenly it will scatter the mist, in such sort that
every Bianco shall be smitten by it : and I have
spoken this, that it may grieve thee sore."

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CANTO XXV.

]S his words came to an end, the thief
held both his hands aloft with scorn-
ful gesture,* the while he cried aloud:
" Take it, God, for it is at Thee I aim
it."

From thenceforth were the snakes my friends,
for at that moment one of them entwined himself
about his neck, as if to say, " 'Tis not my will that
thou shouldst utter more ;" and another about his
arms, that bound him fast, riveting itself in front
so firmly that .he had never power to give a stir.
Ah, Pistoia, Pistoia, wherefore dost thou not re-
solve to burn thyself to ashes, that thou mayest
endure no longer, since in evil-doing thou dost
outstrip thy seed ? Through all Hell's darksome
circles, I saw no spirit so arrogant against God ;
not even him who fell at Thebes down from the
walls.

He fled away, nor spake he another word. And

I beheld a Centaur, filled with fury, come shouting:

*' Where, where is he of the bitter tongue ?" I do

* Lit., " with both the figs."

126

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19-51] ^^K [canto XXV.

not think that all Maremma doth contain so many
reptiles as he had on his haunch, up to where
man's form beginneth. Upon his shoulders, close
behind his head, there crouched on him a dragon
with wings widespread, that sets on fire all whom
he meets.

My Master said : " This is Cacus, who under-
neath the rocky base of Mount Aventine hath
made full many a time a lake of blood. He tra-
velleth not the same road as his comrades because
of the fraudful pillage he accomplished of the huge
herd that were his neighbours' : and for this reason
were his crooked deeds brought to an end under
the club of Hercules, who peradventure gave him
an hundred strokes, yet never felt he ten."

Whilst thus he spake, the other went by, and
under us three shades approached, of whose pre-
sence neither my Guide nor I were aware before
they cried aloud : " Who are ye ?" Whereupon
our discourse brake off, and to them only did we
then turn our thoughts. I could not recognise '
them ; but it happened, as often by some chance
it happens, that one had need to name another,
saying: "Where did Cianfa lurk?" Wherefore
I raised my finger to my chin and nose, in order
that my Guide might stand and listen.

If, Reader, thou art now slow to believe what
I shall tell thee, it were no thing to wonder at, for
I that saw it can scarce admit its truth. Whilst
I kept staring at them, open-eyed, behold ! a snake,
six- footed, springs out in front of one of them, and
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CANTO XXV.] ®ante*» e0mieli|| [51-84

throws itself full upon him. With its middle feet
it clutched his belly, and with its fore-feet seized
his arms ; then drave its fangs deep into both his
cheeks. Over his thighs it stretched its hindmost
feet, and right through both it thrust its tail, and
curled it upwards along his loins behind. Never
to tree did ivy cling so closely, as the foul beast
entwined his limbs about the other s : then grew
they into one, as though they had been made of
melting wax, and fused their colours: nor one,
nor other, any longer seemed that which it was :
just as before a flame the brown hue moveth on-
ward on a piece of paper, which is not black as
yet, though the white fadeth.

The other two stood gazing, and each cried
out : "Ah me ! Agnello, how dost thou change !
Lo ! thou art now no longer two, but one."

Ere this the two heads had become one ; when
two shapes appeared to us commingled in one
form, where two had ceased to be. Of two strips
were there made two arms ; the thighs and legs,
the belly and the chest, were fashioned into limbs
such as were never looked upon. All trace of
former semblance was blotted out in them. Both,
and yet neither, did the disnatured image seem^
and so it passed away with tardy step.

And as the lizard under the Dog-day's mighty
heat, moving from hedge to hedge, seemeth a
flash of lightning if it cross the way ; even so, as
it came towards the bellies of the other two, did
a flaming snake appear, dun and swarthy as a
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84-116] ^^^ [canto XXV.

peppercorn. And through that part, in one of them,

from whence is first derived our sustenance, it

darted ; then fell to earth outstretched in front

of him. 'He that v^as transfixed gazed on it, and

spake no word ; but yawned, with firm-set feet,

as though drowsiness or fever had come upon

him. He eyed the reptile, and the reptile him :

one from his gaping wound, and from his mouth

the other, belched forth thick smoke, and their

smoke joining met. Let Lucan now be mute,

where he tells the tale of vexed Sabellus and

Nasidius ; and let him pause to hear that which is

now unfolded. Of Cadmus and Arethusa be Ovid

mute ; for if he in his tuneful strain changeth

the one into a reptile, the other into a brook,

he moveth not my envy : for never did he so

tran

that

thei:

eacl

rept

was

and

spac

itsel

vani

othe

pits

shoi

weri

toge

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CANTO XXV.] l^anfe'0 CotrntlTQ [116-144

cealeth, while the tortured creature had two
drawn out from his.

Whilst the smoke is mantling the one and the
other in an unwonted hue, and causeth hair to
sprout on one part, and peels it from the other ;
one raised himself erect, and the other fell to
earth; yet shifting none the more for that the
anger-flashing eyes, beneath which each of them
had changed his face. He that was upright had
his drawn towards the temples ; and of the super-
abundant flesh which thither made its way, came
ears to sprout up from the hairless jaws. The
part that moved not backwards, and held its
place, formed on the face a nose, and thickened
into lips of fitting size. He that lay stretched,
shooteth out a snout in front, and draweth his
ears into his head, even as the snail its horns ;
and his tongue, which erewhile was unsevered,
and apt for utterance, parteth in twain ; while in
the other the forked tongue closeth up, and the
smoke ceaseth.

The soul that had become a beast speedeth
away, hissing through the vale, and close behind
it the other, sputtering in its speech. Then turned
he his new-found shoulders towards it, and to
the other saith : " Fain would I see Buoso haste,
as I have done, on hands and knees along this
road."

So saw I change and change again the loath-
some mob that fills the seventh circle ; and if my
pen swerve from its course, strangeness must be
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my plea. And though mine eyes were in a measure
dazed, and my sense distraught, yet could they
not so hide them as they fled, but that I did
detect Puccio Sciancato ; and, of the three com-
panions who came at first, he was the only one
that knew no change : the other was he for whom
thy tears, Gaville, flow.

131

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CANTO XXVI.

LORENCE, be glad of heart, for thou
art grown so great, that thou beatest
thy wings over sea and land, and
wide through Hell is thy name
spread. Amongst the robbers, five
such I found, and burgesses of thine ; whereat
shame cometh on me, and to no mighty honour
dost thou rise thereby. But if it be that dreams
are true upon the threshold of the morn, or ever
a little time be past thou wilt be taught what even
Prato, not to say another, would fain see come
upon thee. And were it even now, it were none
too soon. Would that it so might be, as surely
it must be ; for it will weigh upon me more, the
more my days advance.

We passed from thence ; and up the steps, with
which the jutting rocks had furnished us before
in our descent, my guide again ascended, and
drew me after him. And following the lonesome
path, through the crags and through the splinters
of the cliff, the foot unaided by the hand had made
no progress.
Then sorrow came upon me, and sorrow cometh
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on me now afresh, when I direct my thoughts to
what I saw ; and more than is my wont I curb
my power of mind, to stay its wandering into ways
where virtue may not lead it : so that, if either
favouring star or higher power have vouchsafed
aught of good unto me, I may not grudge myself
its use.

Many as the fire-flies which the peasant, at rest
upon the hill, seeth beneath him in the valley,
where it may be he tilleth and gathereth his
grapes, in the season when he that lighteth up
the world holdeth his face least hidden from us,
what time the fly giveth place unto the gnat : so
many were the flames with which the eighth abyss
was all ablaze, as I was made aware so soon as
I was come to where the depth disclosed itself.
And even as he for whom the bears wreaked
vengeance, beheld Elijah's chariot as it moved
away, what time the rearing steeds uplifted them
towards Heaven; for with his eyes he had nq)
power to follow, so as to see aught else save only
flame, mounting aloft, like to a tiny cloud : in
such wise did each flame move along the gorge of
the abyss, that none revealed that which was hid
within it, and every flame enwraps a sinner.

I stood tiptoe so high upon the bridge to see,
that had I not seized hold upon a jutting rock,
I should have fallen below with no enforcement*

* Shakespeare, " Henry IV.," Part II., i. i :
" And as the thing that*s heavy in itself,
Upon enforcement flies with greater speed.'*

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CANTO XXVI.] 9axttt^B C0mit^i2 [46-74

And my Guide, who saw me thus intent, said :
"The spirits are within the fires: each one is
mantled with what consumeth him." " My Mas-
ter," I made answer, " now that I hear thee I am
more assured ; but already I was persuaded that
it was even so, and already was I minded to say
to thee : Who is he in yonder fire that cometh so
divided at the crest, that it would seem as though
it rose from out the pyre where Eteocles was laid
beside his brother ?"

He answered me : " Within it there, Ulysses
and Diomede are tortured : and as erewhile in sin,
so speed they now in punishment together. And
in their flame they are bemoaning the ambush of
the Horse, that made the gate through which
came forth the Romans' noble seed. Within it
do they lament the stratagem, through which,
even after death, Deidamia sorroweth for Achilles ;
and there must they endure their punishment for
the Palladium.

" Master," I said, " if they have power to speak
within these fires, I pray thee earnestly, and urge
my prayer again, that it may be even as a thousand
prayers, that thou wilt not deny me leave to wait
until the horned flame come near : thou seest that
I am bent on it with yearning." And he made
answer to me: "Thy prayer is worthy of much
praise, and therefore I allow it ; but let thy tongue
be curbed. Leave speech to me; for I have
gathered that thou dost desire ; and, inasmuch as

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they were Greeks, it may be they would scorn thy
words."

After that the flame was come to where my
Guide thought time and place were fitting, in such
words did I hear him speak : " Ye, that are two
within a single flame, if I have wrought you service
while I lived, if I have wrought you service, much
or little, when in the world above I penned my
lofty strain, stay ye awhile ; and one of you de-
clare, where was the place where, having lost his
course, he went to die."

The taller horn of the old flame commenced to
tremble, muttering, even as a flame which the
wind bloweth to and fro; then swaying to each
side its topmost point, as though it were the
tongue that spake, sent its voice from within, and
said : " When I took leave of Circe, she that for
more than a year detained me there hard by Gaeta,
or ever iEneas had named it by that name;
neither affection for my boy, nor reverence for an
aged sire, nor even the debt of love that should
have filled Penelope with gladness, had power to
quell within me the yearning I had nourished to
win experience of the world, men's vices and their
worth. Into the deep and open sea I launched,
with never ship but one, and that poor remnant
of my company that had not fled from me. Both
shores I saw, as far as Spain, as far too as Morocco,
and the Sardinians' isle, and all the other isles
bathed by that sea. Stricken with years and
slow, were I and my companions, when we came
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!

CANTO XXVI.] 3ant^^9 (Cvimthyi [107-139

to that narrow strait, where Hercules set up his
landmarks, to warn mankind that they should
pass no farther. Seville I left on the right ; on
the other hand I had already left Ceuta. 'Brothers,'
I said, 'who through an hundred thousand dangers
have reached the region of the setting sun, to the
poor paltry watch that still remaineth of your
senses, consent not to deny the knowledge of the
land behind the sun, where no man dwelleth.
Bethink you of your birth : ye were not made to
live the life of brutes, but to obey the call of valour
and of knowledge.'

" With such brief speech I made my comrades
so eager for the voyage, that I could hardly then
have held them back ; and turning our stern
towards the morning, of our oars we made us
wings for our foolhardy flight, steering ever to the
left. At night I had already looked upon all the
stars of the other hemisphere, and ours dipped
down so low, that it showed not above the Ocean's
level. Five times beneath the moon was the light
kindled, and quenched as many times, since we had
passed within the perilous strait,* when a moun-
tain loomed on our sight, dun with distance, and
higher did it seem to me, than any I had ever
looked upon. Our hearts were filled with glad-
ness, but soon it turned to sorrow ; for from the
new-found land a storm sprang up, and shattered
our vessel's prow. Three times did it make her

* /.^., the present Straits of Gibraltar.
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139-142] "^Vill [canto XXVI.

whirl around with all its strength of waters ; at
the fourth it drave the poop aloft, and forced the
bow to sink, as was God's will, until the billows
closed again above us."

y

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CANTO XXVII.

OW was the flame erect, and without
stir, for it had ceased to speak ; and
now it passed away from us, with
the permission of the gentle Poet ;
when another that came behind it
caused us to turn our eyes towards
the crest, because of a confused sound that came
forth from it.

As the SiciUan bull (that bellowed first — and
rightly too — with the groans of him whose file had
fashioned it) bellowed with the voice of him who
was being tortured ; so that, albeit of brass, it
seemed deep-pierced with agony ; even so, for that
at first, while in the fire, they had neither avenue
nor outlet, the mutterings of lamentation were
transformed into its own tones. But after they
had won their way up through the point, giving
to it the tremor the tongue had given them in
their going forth, we heard it say : '* O thou to
whom I direct my voice, and who even now didst
speak in Lombard accents, saying, ' Betake thee
now away, I do not urge thee more ' ; albeit my

138

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22-52] i|]qn [canto XXVII.

coming has peradventure been a little late, be it
not galling to thee to stay and speak with me :
thou seest it galleth me not, and I am burning.
If it be that thou art newly fallen into this sight-
less world from out that pleasant Latian land,
whence I come laden with the full burden of my
sins, tell me if the Romagnuols are at peace or
war ; for I was from the mountains there, between
Urbino and the peak where Tiber's fountain is
unloosed."

I was still bowed low and listening, when my
Guide touched my side, saying : ** Speak thou ;
this one is Latian-born."

And I, who had ere then my answer ready,
straightway began to speak : ** Spirit, that art
concealed beneath, thy native land Romagna
neither is, nor was she ever, without war in the
hearts of her rulers ; but open war amongst them
I left none now. Ravenna standeth as she hath
stood for many a year : the eagle of Polenta
sitteth brooding there, so that it overshadoweth
Cervia with its wings. The city that in other
days braved the long trial, and piled a gory heap
of Frenchmen, is once again under the claws of
green. And the mastiffs of Verrucchio, old and
young, that wrought the spoiling of Montagna,
are boring with their teeth there where their habit
was. The Lion cub of the white den, that

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CANTO XXVII.] 9ante^« Ctfmebit [53-^4

lieth betwixt the highlands and the plain, so
betwixt tyranny and freedom doth it spend its
days. And now I do entreat thee, tell us who
thou art ; be not more obdurate than others were ;
so may thy name maintain on earth its place of
pride."

When that the fire had roared awhile, as was
its wont, to and fro it waved its pointed crest, and
then blew forth these words : ** Could I believe my
answer were to one who would ever return to the
world, this flame should stand for ever motion-
less ; but since none ever hath returned alive
from out this gorge, if it be truth I hear, fearless
of infamy I make my answer to thee.

" I was a soldier, and then a monk of the Cord,
fancying, girded thus, to make atonement : and
of a verity my fancy had been fulfilled, were it not
for the High Priest, whom ill betide ! who led my
steps again to my old sins ; and how, and where-
fore, I would fain have you hear. Whilst I was
still a form of flesh and bone, the which my
mother gave me, my deeds were not those of the
lion, but of the fox. Wiles and secret ways, I
knew them all ; and to such purpose plied their
arts, that it was noised abroad even to the earth's
end. When I saw that I was come to that period
of my days, when it behoveth man to lower sail
and coil the ropes together, that which erewhile
was pleasant in my sight, brought galling then,
I gave myself to repentance and confession ; alas,
unhappy me ! and that would have availed me.
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85-117] ^^il [canto XXVII.

The Chief of the new Pharisees — at war close by
the Lateran, and not with Saracens, not with
Jews ; for never enemy of his but was a Christian,
and never one of them had been to conquer Acre,
nor served as merchant in the Soldan's land —
knew naught of reverence for highest office and
priestly orders in himself, nor aught in me for the
Girdle which was wont to make its wearers more
spare of flesh. But even as Constantine summoned
Silvestro from the hollows of Soracte to cure him
of his leprosy, so he there summoned me as his
physician to cure the fever of his arrogance : he
bade me give him counsel; and I was mute, be-
cause his words seemed drunken. And then he
said to me : ' Let not thy heart dream aught of
harm : even now do I assoilzie thee, and do thou
teach me so to act that I may drag Penestrino to
the ground. 'Tis mine, as thou dost know, to
lock and unlock Heaven ; for the keys are two, by
which my predecessor set little store.' And so his
weighty reasoning drave me to that point where I
felt that to hold my peace was worst ; and I said :
' Father, since thou dost grant me pardon for that
sin to which I cannot choose but sink, unending
promise, with scant fulfilment, will win the day for
thee in thy high seat.'

** When I was dead, Saint Francis came for
me; but one of the black Cherubim said unto
him, * Bear him not away ; wrong me not. He
needs must come below amongst my thralls, for
that he gave the treacherous counsel, since which,
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CANTO XXVII.] I>anf0*0 C^miebu [ii 7-136

even to this day, I have kept fast by his hair : for
absolution there is none for him that knoweth not
repentance ; nor can man at one time yearn for
and sorrow for his sin, for contradiction suffereth
it not.' O miserable me ! how I shuddered when
he laid hold of me, saying to me: 'Thou didst not
deem perchance that I was a logician !'

" He bore me away to Minos; and eight times
he wound his tail around his stubborn back ; and
after that he had bitten it in great rage, he said :
' This one must join the sinners meet for the
thieving fire ': wherefore, here where thou seest,
am I undone ; and thus attired, my torment
rankles as I go."

When he had thus made an end of his speech,
the flame passed sorrowing away, writhing and
tossing to and fro its pointed horn. We moved
along, I and my Guide, over the crag, up to the
other arch that overhangeth the gorge wherein
the penalty is paid by those whose burden cometh
to them by sowing discord.

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CANTO XXVIII.

HO could in full describe, even with
unshackled words, the blood and
wounds that I now saw, often though
he told the tale ? Surely no tongue
there is but would come short of it,
because of our speech and comprehension, whose
wit is all too weak to grasp so much. If
once again the mighty host could be gathered
together, that erewhile on Appulia's fateful plain
wept for their blood, shed by the Roman ; and in
the long protracted war which heaped such mighty
spoil of rings, as Livy writes, who erreth not :
together with the host that in their struggle with
Robert Guiscard were made to feel the dole of
blows : and furthermore, that host whose bones
are even to this day piled up at Ceperano, where
each Appuhan played the traitor ; and there, too,
hard by Tagliacozzo, where without arms the
aged Alardo won the day : and one should show
his mangled limb, another his lopped off ; it were
yet nought beside the gruesome fashion of the
ninth circle.

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CANTO XXVIII.] l>anfit*« €mattfu [21-52

Never was cask so rent, through loss of stave or
bottom, as one whom I beheld cleft from chin to
breach. His entrails hung betwixt his legs; the
pluck was laid all bare, and the foul pouch that
turneth into excrement that which is swallowed.
Whilst I was wholly taken up in gazing on him,
he turned his eyes on me, and with his hands he
opened out his breast, the while he spake : " Mark
now how I rend myself; mark how mangled
Mahomet is. Before me goeth Ali wailing, his
face split down from forelock to the chin ; and all
the others on whom thou lookest here, were in
their lives spreaders of scandal and of schism, and
this is why we are so cleft. A demon is behind us
here, that gasheth us in such cruel fashion, making
each member of this herd time after time come
under his sword's edge, when we have made the
circle of the road of sorrow ; for our wounds close
up or ever any one of us cometh again before him,
But who art thou that ponderest upon the crag,
perchance to stay awhile thy going to the doom
that hath been passed upon the charge thy self
hast laid against thee ?"

" Death hath not come to him as yet, nor doth
sin lead him," my Master answered, " to torment
him ; but it is mine, dead though I be, to lead him
from circle unto circle down through Hell, that,
his experience may be full : and this is even true,
as that I speak to thee."

More than an hundred were there who, when
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52-86] ^tU [canto xxviii.

they heard him, stood still to gaze upon me in the
gorge, forgetful of their tortures in their wonder.

" Go, thou that peradventure will look ere long
upon the sun, tell Fra Dolcino, an it so be he
careth not to follow me with speed down here, to
arm him with such store of provender, that stress
of snow may fail to bring victory to the Novarese,
which otherwise it were no light thing to achieve/'
These words Mahomet said to me, after that he
had raised one foot to move away ; then planted
it upon the ground to go.

Another one, whose throat was pierced from
side to side, who had his nose cut off up to the
eyebrows, and but a single ear, halting to gaze in
wonder with the others, before the others opened
out his windpipe, which was all red without, and
spake : " O thou, whom sin condemneth not, and
whom ere now I have beheld on Latian ground —
if strong resemblance do not play me false — call
Pier da Medicina to thy mind, if ever thou dost
return to look upon the pleasant plains that from
Vercelli slope to Mercabo. And tell the two best
citizens of Fano, Dan Guido and Angiolello too,
that if our power here to read the future be not
vain, they shall be hurled from out their ship and
foully drowned near Cattolica, through a base
tyrant's treachery. Never yet did Neptune see
a cr
wroi
race
and

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CANTO XXVIII.] 9eititvi^» €mtttXfU [87-117

here would fain he had never looked, will make
them come to parley with him : then will his acts
be such, that they shall need not vow nor prayer
to fend them from Focara's wind."

And I made answer to him : " Expound and
make clear to me, if thy wish it be, that I should
carry tidings of thee to the world above, who is he
whose eyes beheld the un\yelcome sight ?"

Then laid he his hand upon the jaw of one of
his companions, and opened his mouth, the while
he cried aloud : ** This here is he, and he speaketh
not ; this outcast laid to rest the doubt in Caesar,
asserting that the man who is forearmed can never
brook delay but to his cost." Oh ! in what wild
dismay did Curio seem to me, his tongue slit in his
throat, he that was once so bold of speech !

And one that had both hands lopped off, raising
the stumps aloft in the murky air, so that the
blood besmeared his face, cried out : ** Thou wilt
remember Mosca too, who said, ah me ! * A deed
is crowned when done '; which was the Tuscan
people's seed of evil."

** And ruin to thy kin," I added : whereat,
overwhelmed in deepening agony, he passed away,
like one beside himself and sorrow-smitten. But
I stood fast to view the troop, and saw a thing
which, without other proof, I should fear to tell
alone : were it not that conscience doth reassure
me, the kindly comrade that giveth strength to
man, when armed with the breastplate of conscious
purity.

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it— a
in tha
head
every
wond(
itself
two i
Heki
Wl:
he lif
bring
nowu
of bn
there
mayei
Bertr
with 1
into
wrou^
his m;
those
is me
in thi
law n;

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CANTO XXIX.

HE crowding people and the ever-
varying wounds had made my eyes
to reel so, that they were fain to rest
and weep. But Virgil said to me :
" On what art thou still gazing ?
Why clingeth thy vision still down there amongst
the sad and mangled spirits ? Such was not thy
way in the other chasms ; bear in mind, if thou
dost think to number them, that the whole circle
of the valley is two-and-twenty miles ; and the
moon is already beneath our feet. The time that
is allowed us is now short, and there is more to
see than that thou seest."

" Hadst thou," I then made answer to him,
"bethought thee of the cause through which I
gazed, thou wouldst peradventure have permitted
me to tarry yet awhile." Meantime my Guide
moved on, and I went after him, even as I made
my answer to him, and adding further : '* Within
the cavern upon whose depths I held my eyes so
riveted, I am persuaded that a spirit of my own
blood is wailing the sin for which such heavy
reckoning is paid down yonder."
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2252

Tl
from
thy r
abide
bridj
his f
Belle
on h;
not 1

no V
of tl
disd?
passi
heh;

Sc
that
valle
but 1
utmc
hood
mine
shaft
ears

Si
Vald
Man
in o
arosi
from

D(

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CANTO XXIX.] 9artttCik trmttttfu [53-^5

long cliff, keeping continuously to the left ; and
then I could see more clearly down to the depths,
where the High Father's hand-maiden, unerring
Justice, meteth out punishment on the forgers
whom she enrolleth in the book of doom on earth.
I do not think that in Egina it was a deeper sorrow
to see the people all plague-stricken, what time
the air was laden so with pestilence that every
living thing, even to the tiny worm, dropped down
— and afterwards the ancient races, as poets hold
for truth, were re-established from the seed of
ants — than it was to behold the spirits wasting in
heap upon heap throughout that darksome valley.
One on the belly, another on the shoulders, they
lay upon each other, and another crawling moved
from place to place along the miserable way.
With tardy steps we went, uttering no word,
looking upon and listening to the sick who had
no strength to raise their bodies. Two I saw
sitting, propped one against the other, as dish is
propped against dish for warming, covered from
head to foot with scabby spots. And never saw
I currycomb plied by groom for whom his master
waiteth, nor by one kept waking sore against his
will, as each of them plied quick his rasping nails
upon himself, under the raging violence of the
itch, that knoweth no other appeasing. And their
nails stripped the scabs from off them, even as
doth a knife the scales from a bream or other fish
that hath them larger.

" O thou V* began my Guide to one of them,
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85-117] l|^n [canto XXIX.

"that tearest thyself with thy fingers, and makest
pincers of them for the nonce ; tell me if there be
any Latian-born amongst those that are within ;
so may thy nails endure for ever for such employ-
ment."

" Latian-born are we, the twain whom thou seest
so mutilated here," one made reply, the while he
wept; "but who art thou, that hast inquired of us?"

And my Guide said : "One am I, who with this
living man am going down from depth to depth,
and I am busied in showing Hell to him." There-
upon their mutual support came to an end ; and
they turned them each towards me, trembling,
with others who caught the echo of his words.

My gentle Master turned all his thoughts to me,
the while he spake : " Say to them all thou wishest/'

And I began, even as he willed me to : " So may
your memory not fade from out men's minds in
the first world, but abide for many suns ; declare
to me who ye are, and of what nation ; nor ever
let your foul and loathsome sufferings fill you with
fear to make you known to me."

" I was of Arezzo," the one made answer to me,
" and Albero da Siena got me thrust into the fire ;
but that for which I died is not what bringeth me
here. True it is that I said to him, speaking in
jest : ' I could raise myself to fly through the air ;'
and he, possessed as he was of curiosity and little
sense, desired that I should show the art to him ;
and all because I made him not a Dsedalus, he
burnt me by the hands of one whose son he was

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CANTO XXIX. ] 9anf]e^0 tf ^m^tin [ 1 1 8- 1 39

reputed. But Minos, who may not be mistaken,
condemned me to the deepest chasm of all the
ten, for the alchemy in which I trafficked when
on earth."

And I said to the Poet : " Was ever race so vain
as the Sienese ? Of a verity the French were never
nearly so."

Whereat the other leper, who caught my words,
made answer to my speech : " Excepting Stricca,
who found the way to lavish in moderation ; and
Niccolo, who first discovered the costly use of the
clove, in the garden where all such seed taketh
root ; excepting, too, the company in which Caccia
of Asciano wasted his vineyard and his spacious
woods, and Abbagliato showed the wit he had.
But that thou mayest learn who it is that thus
supports thee in dispraise of the Sienese, bend
thine eyes keenly on me, so that my countenance
may truly show itself to thee ; so shalt thou see
that I am the spirit of Capocchio, who with the
aid of alchemy abased the metals ; and thou must
needs remember, if I but rightly scan thy face,
how excellent an ape I was of nature."

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wife
crie(
take
ther
mer
Lea
him
burc
to e
all 1
king
in n
Poli:
was
in hi
sorn
nor

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CANTO XXX.] 9anl^'0 €mmtjiu [23-53

toward any yet — in goading brutes, much less in
goading human limbs — than the two pale and
naked spirits whom I beheld, that hurried by,
snapping the while, even as the swine doth snap
what time he breaketh from the sty. One of
them came beside Capocchio, and drave his
fangs into the knotty portion of his neck, in such
sort that, as he dragged him, he made his belly
grate upon the stony ground. And the Aretine,
who stood there trembling, said to me : " That
airy sprite is Gianni Schicchi; and in mad fashion
he goeth round, plaguing his neighbours thus."

"Oh!" said I to him, "so may the other not
drive his fangs into thy flesh, let it not weary thee
to tell who it is, or ever it speed hence."

And he made answer to me : " That is the
ancient spirit of sin-soiled Myrrha, who, spurning
lawful love, became her father's mistress. She
came to sin so with him, by falsely taking on
herself another's form, even as the other, who
goeth away yonder, took on himself in his own
person to falsely represent Buoso Donati, making
a will and giving it due form, that he might gev
possession of the lady of the herd."

And when the two mad spirits had passed
away, on whom I had kept my eye, I turned it
back to gaze upon the other ill-starred shades.
One I beheld made after the fashion of a lute,
had he but had the groin cut short where man is
forked. The heavy dropsy — which, with the
moisture it hath no power to absorb, so wrests

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the parts from their own form, that the face no
longer matcheth with the paunch — forced him to
keep his lips apart, even as one smitten with
hectic fever, through stress of thirst, turneth one
lip towards the chin and the other upwards.

" O ye ! who suffer never a torture, and why I
know not, in this world of woe," he spake to us,
" turn your eyes and thoughts to the sad plight
of Master Adam. In life I knew no lack of what
I wished for, and now, ah me ! I yearn for even
one drop of water. The brooks, that flow from
the green hills of Casentino down to the Arno,
cooling and moistening their banks, are ever
there before me, and not in vain ; for, far beyond
the malady that robbeth my face of flesh, their
image parcheth me. The unbending Justice, that
chastiseth me, borroweth even from the land
wherein I sinned, a means to make my sighs
more frequent. Yonder is Romena, where I
wrought the false coinage, stamped with the
Baptist's image, for which I had to leave my
body burning upon earth. But could I only look
on Guide's wretched soul, or Alexander's, or their
brothers here, I would not give the sight for
Branda's fountain. One of them is even now
within, if the frenzied spirits that go their rounds
speak truth: but what doth it profit me whose
limbs are hampered ? If I were only light of foot
enough to travel even an inch in an hundred
years, I should ere now have started on the way
to seek for him amidst this loathsome crowd,

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CANTO XXX.] 9dnl^'0 Qtimt^trii [86-113

albeit it stretcheth round eleven miles, and is not
less than half a mile in width. Through them
am I become one of such a household : they, it
was, that lured me on to stamp the florins that
had three carats of alloy."

And I said unto him : ** Who are the wretched
pair, that steam like to a moistened hand in
winter, that lie close by thee on the right ?"

"I found them here," he answered, "when I
came down like rain into this hole, and since that
day they never gave a turn, nor do I think they
ever will through all eternity. One is the faithless
woman who laid the charge against Joseph ; the
other is the faithless Sinon, the Greek from Troy ;
raging fever it is that maketh them to throw off
such loathsome vapour.**

And one of them who peradventure took it ill,
that he was named thus darkly, with clenched
hand struck him on the hardened paunch : it
resounded as though it had been a drum ; and
Master Adam struck him in the face with his arm,
that seemed no whit less hard, the while he said
to him : *' Although I am bereft of power to move,
by reason of these heavy limbs, I have an arm
unfettered for need like this." Whereat the other
made reply: **When thou wert on thy way to
the fire, thou hadst it not so ready; but just as
ready, and more so, thou hadst it when thou wast
forging coin."

The dropsied one made answer : " Thou sayest
truth in this ; but thou wast not so truthful as

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113-141] 1J^ W [canto XXX.

a witness when thou wast questioned of the truth
at Troy."

" If I spake false, thou too didst forge false
coin," said Sinon: "and I am here for one false
act, but thou for more than any other demon.''

"Bethink thee of the horse, perjurer," answered
he who had the swollen paunch ; " and may it
plague thee that the whole world wots of it."

** May thy thirst plague thee," said the Greek,
"wherewith thy tongue is cracking; the stinking
water too that swells thy belly so into a mound
before thine eyes."

And then the coiner answered : " Thy jaw doth
gape for evil utterance as is its wont ; for granted
that I thirst, and that I swell with moisture, thou
hast the fever heat and aching head ; nor wouldst
thou wait for many words of invitation to lap
Narcissus' mirror."

I was wholly occupied in listening to them,
when my Master said to me : " Gaze on in
wonderment, but little more is wanted to make
me quarrel with thee." Hearing him speak to
me in anger, I turned me towards him with
shame so deep, that it still haunts my recollec-
tion. And even as one that dreameth of his own
harm, and in his dreaming wisheth it were a
dream, so that he yearns for that which really is,
as if it were not ; to such state was I come, that,
having no power to speak, I longed to make
excuse, and made it all the while, nor ever
dreamed I did so.

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CANTO XXX.] 3anWik (tlomttfu

[142-148

•* Less shame," my Master said, " would expiate
a greater fault than thine hath been ; wherefore
unburden thee of all depression : and bear in
mind that I am always at thy side, if ever it
should come about again that chance should
throw thee where people are engaged in contest
of such sort : for wishing to give ear to it is an
unworthy wish."

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CANTO XXXI.

HE self-same tongue had wounded me
so sore at first, that it sent a blush to
both my cheeks, and then brought
healing to me. Even so have I
heard tell that the spear of Achilles,
and of his sire, was wont to be the cause at first
of sorrow, then of kindly boon.

We turned our backs upon the vale of sorrow-
ing, faring onwards over the rampart that windeth
around it, uttering no word. Here it was less
than night and less than day, so that my vision
reached but a short way before me : but I heard
a mighty horn sounding so loudly that it would
have stifled any thunder, which drew mine eyes
wholly to one place, following it backwards in the
direction from which it came. Orlando never
blew so dread a blast, after the tearful rout, when
Charlemagne saw his holy emprise perish. I
had held my head but a short space turned that
way, when I seemed to see a multitude of lofty
towers ; wherefore I said : " Prithee, Master, what
town is this V*

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CANTO XXXI.] IfianWB (SrOmttfU [22-55

And he made answer to me : " For that thou
gazest into the darkness at too great a distance,
it Cometh that thou art astray in what thou dost
imagine. Clearly shalt thou see, when thou
drawest near yon spot, how much the sense is
tricked by distance ; wherefore bestir thee some-
what more." And then he took me by the hand
lovingly, and said : *' Or ever we go further, that
the reality may seem less strange to thee, know
that they are not towers, but giants ; and they
are, one and all, from navel downwards sunk in
the pit which goeth about the rampart.

As when the mist is clearing, the eye doth slowly
shape again what the air-thickening cloud is
hiding : even so, piercing the dim and gathered
atmosphere, as we drew near and nearer to the
edge, error departed from me, and fear came upon
me. And like as Montereggione, above its circling
bastions, is crowned with towers, so did these
fearful giants — whom Jove still threatens when it
thunders — with their half-bodies form towers upon
the mound that goeth around the pit. And already
I could discern the face of one of them, his shoulders
too, and breast, and a great part of his belly, and
both arms down along his sides. Nature, I trow,
when she gave up the art of rearing living things
so fashioned, did well to withhold such ministers
from Mars. And if she knoweth no regret for
creating elephants and whales, he who considereth
it curiously, will hold her all the wiser and more
just for doing so ; for where the force of intellect

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is joined to evil will, and power to do such will,
mankind is helpless to find resource against it.

His face seemed to me as long and huge as St.
Peter's pine at Rome ; and matching well there^
with were his other bones. So that the rampart
which served him as an apron from the middle
down, still left so great a space of him exposed
above, that three Frieslanders would boast in vain
that they could reach his hair : for I could see full
thirty palms of him, downwards from where man
fasteneth his mantle. '* Rafel mai amec zabi almi,"
began to shout the savage mouth, that sweeter
strain would not befit. And my Guide spake
towards him : ** Besotted soul, keep thee to thy
horn, and spend thy breath on it, when wrath or
other passion cometh on thee. Search on thy
neck, and thou wilt find the baldrick, that holdeth
it suspended, dull-witted soul; and see what
girdeth thy bulky chest."

And then he said to me : ** He is his own ac-
cuser; this is Nimrod, through whose vain device
one tongue alone is not employed on earth. There
let us leave him, nor waste our words : for every
tongue is to him as his to others, incomprehensible
to ail."

We therefore journeyed onwards somewhat
farther, turning to the left : and at the distance
of a crossbow-shot we found the other, fiercer and
huger far. What may have been the master-hand
to bind him, I cannot tell ; but he had his left arm
pinioned in front of him, and his right behind him,

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CANTO XXXI.] ^antti^B (ILvimtttu [^7-i'9

with a chain, that held him fettered close from the
neck downwards, in such sort that it wound itself
about his body where exposed, even to the fifth
coil.

"This arrogant spirit," said my Guide, "was
fain to make trial of his strength against high Jove ;
and such is his reward. His name is Ephialtes ;
and he made his great essay, what time the giants
smote the gods with fear. The arms he wielded
once, are motionless for ever."

And I said unto him : " If it might be, I should
wish that mine eyes might look on the immeasur-
able Briareus." Whereat he made reply: "Anteus,
thou shalt see hard by, who speaketh, and is un-
fettered, and he will bear us to the lowest depth
of evil. He whom thou dost desire to see, is
yonder, further far; and he is bound, and fashioned
even as this one is, save that he showeth more
savage in his aspect."

Never yet was earthquake of such exceeding
violence, that it could shake a tower so rudely, as
Ephialtes straightway shook himself. Then more
than ever was I afraid of death ; nor was aught
needed for it more than terror, had I not seen the
bands.

Then fared we further on, and reached Anteus,
who rose above the fosse full five ells without the
head. *'0 thou, that in the fateful vale, which
gave to Scipio an heritage of glory when Hannibal
and all his host turned them to flight, didst ere-
while carry off a thousand lions as thy prey, and,
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an thou hadst but joined the mighty combat of
thy brothers, folk are still fain to think the sons
of earth would have won the day : set us down —
let it not prove distasteful to thee — where the frost
bindeth up Cocytus. Force us not to go to Tityus
or to Typhon ; this one hath power to grant thee
what ye yearn for here ; wherefore bend thee down,
nor set thy mouth awry. He hath the power to
restore thee fame on earth ; for he is living still,
and looketh forward to many days, if it so be that
Grace call him not to herself or ever his hour be
come."

So spake my Master, and he, in haste, reached
forth his hands, and took my Guide — the hands
whose mighty grasp Hercules had felt ere then.
When Virgil felt himself caught up, he said to me :
" Come hither, that I may take hold of thee."
And then he so contrived that he and I became
one bundle. As from beneath its leaning side the
Carisenda tower appeareth to the eye, what time
a cloud is sailing over it, so that it stoopeth to-
wards its coming; so seemed Anteus to me, as
I stood lost in wonderment to see him bend, and
then it was that I would fain have gladly gone
some other way. But gently he set us down in
the abyss, where Lucifer and Judas are consumed ;
nor ever paused he thus bowed down, but like a
ship's mast raised himself erect.

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CANTO XXXII.

I AD I command of rhymes uncouth and
harsh, as would befit the joyless gorge
whereon the other ridges are all sus-
tained, I would in fuller measure
press out the essence of my fancy ;
but since I have them not, it is not without fear
that I bring myself to tell of it. For, to portray
in words the base of all the Universe is not a task
to take up lightly, nor one for childhood's babbling
tongue.* But may the Sisters aid my verse, who
lent Amphion their assistance to wall up Thebes,
so that my words may not come short of the reality.
O race accursed beyond all others, that have
your dwelling in a place hard to describe in speech,
better far it were had ye here been sheep or goats !
When we were down in the darksome pit, below
the giant's feet, but deeper far, and I still gazed in
wonder at the lofty walls, I heard myself ad-
dressed: "Take heed how thou goest; see that
thou dost not dash thy foot against the heads of
the jaded and miserable brothers." Whereat I

* Lit., " nor for a tongue that cries mamma and papa.'*
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22-52] ^tU [canto xxxil

turned me round, and saw in front of me, and
underneath my feet, a lake, which frost had made
to wear the semblance of glass, and not of water.
Never did the Danube in Austria form on its course
in winter time so thick a covering, nor the Don away
beneath the chilly sky, as there was here, so strong,
that had Mount Tabernich or Pietrapana fallen
upon it, it would not have so much as creaked
about the edge. And as a frog squatteth to croak,
his snout above the water, what time the peasant
girl oft dreams of gleaning; even so, livid up to
where the hues of shame are manifest, were the
unhappy spirits in the ice, chattering with their
teeth like storks. Each had his face turned down-
wards: and amongst them their mouths bore
witness to the cold, their eyes to the sorrow at
their hearts.

When I had looked about me for a space, I
turned towards my feet, and two I saw crushed
so close together, that they had the hairs of their
heads entangled. "Tell me,'M said, "ye who
press so against each other's breasts, who are ye?"
And they bent back their necks; and after that
they had lifted up their faces towards me, their
eyes, which up to then were only moist within,
welled over at the Hds, and the frost congealed

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CANTO XXXII.] ^anfe*0 C^ttiB^trn [53-8i

cold, with face still downwards, said : " Why dost
thou glass thyself so much in us ? If it so be that
thou hast wish to learn who are these twain, the
valley, from out of which Bisenzio's stream de-
scendeth, belonged to them and to their father
Albert. Of one body were they born : and thou
mayest search through all Caina, nor ever find a
shade that more deserveth to be planted in the
icy mass : not him whose breast and shadow too
were pierced through at one blow by Arthur's
hand : not Focaccia ; not this one here that im-
pedeth me with his head so, that I can see no
farther, who bore the name of Sassol Mascheroni :
if thou art Tuscan-born, well canst thou gather
now who he was. And that thou mayest not urge
me to further speech, know that I was Camicion
de' Pazzi, and I am waiting for Carlino to excuse
me.

Then saw I a thousand faces made dog-like by
the cold ; whence shuddering comes upon me,
and will ever come, when looking upon frozen
pools. And while we went towards the centre, to
which all weights are drawn together, and I was
trembling under the gloom that never endeth,
whether it was God's will, or fate, or chance, I
know not ; but as I passed amidst the heads, I
dashed my foot with violence against the face of
one. He cried aloud to me complaining : " Why
dost thou trample on me ? If thou comest not to
make more bitter the vengeance of Mont' Aperti,
why troublest thou me ?"
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And I : '* Master, wait now for me here, that by
his aid I may rid me of a doubt : then mayest
thou hurry me to thy heart's content."

My Guide paused ; and I said unto him, who
still went on blaspheming in angry mood: "What
art thou, that thus revilest others ?" " Nay rather,
who art thou," he answered, " that goest through
Antenora striking the jaws of others, so that, if
thou wert living, it were too much ?"

** Living I am," was my reply, '* and it may be
welcome to thee, if it so be that thou dost look
for fame, that I enrol thy name upon my
notes." And he made answer to me: "'Tis for
the contrary that I yearn. Up, and away from
here, and cease to plague me ; for to Httle purpose
dost thou flatter in this sunk plain."

Then took I hold of him by the back hair, and
said : ** Thou needs must name thy name, or never a
hair will be left thee on thy head." Whereupon he
answered: "Even though thou leavest me hair-
less, I shall not tell thee who I am ; nor make it
known to thee, though thou shouldst fall upon my
head a thousand times." By this I had his locks
coiled in my hand, and from them I had torn
more than one tuft, he barking, with eyes turned
downwards ; when another cried aloud : " Bocca,
what aileth thee ? Is rattling of thy jawbones not
enough for thee, but thou must bark as well ?
What devil layeth hand on thee ?"

" Now, cursed traitor," I said, " I do not want
thy speech ; for I will bear away true tidings of

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CANTO XXXII.] 9ante*0 Qtmn^trji [111-139

thee to thy shame." " Go thy way," he answered,
" and tell whate'er it listeth thee ; but if thou
goest out from hence, hold not thy peace concern-
ing him who just now had his tongue so glib.
Here he mourneth the Frenchmen's silver. 'I
saw/ it will be thine to say, ' him of Duera, where
the sinners stand ill at ease.' If they should ask
of thee who else was there, thou hast beside thee
him of Beccheria, whose throat Florence laid open.
Gianni del Soldanier is further on, I think, in
company with Ganellone and Tribaldello, who
opened Faenza's gates when all were sleeping."

We had already come away from him, when I
beheld two in one crevice frozen together in such
wise, that one of them made a covering for the
other : and just as bread is devoured in starvation,
even with such-like savagery did he that was upper-
most drive his teeth into the other, where the brain
adjoins the nape. Not otherwise did Tydeus gnaw
the temples of Menalippus in wrathful indignation,
than he the poll and other parts.

" O thou, that by token so brutal dost show thy
hate against him whom thou devourest, tell me,"
I said, "the reason; on this condition, that, if
thou complainest of him with a just complaint,
I, knowing who ye are, and his transgression, may
yet repay thee for it in the world above ; an it so
be that that wherewith I speak be not dried up.'*

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CANTO XXXIII.

HAT sinner raised his mouth from the
grim repast, wiping it in the hairs of
the head he had devoured behind.
Then he commenced : " Thou dost
desire me to renew sorrow that knew
not hope, that weigheth down my heart, even as
I think thereon, or ever I tell of it. But if my
words are to be the seed that will blossom into
infamy for the traitor whom I gnaw, thou shalt
behold me speak and weep at once. I know not
who thou art, nor by what means thou hast come
down here ; but Florentine in truth thou seemest,
when I hear thee speak. Thou must know that
1 was Count Ugolino, and this one here. Archbishop
Ruggieri : and now will I tell thee why I am to
hinijthe neighbour that I am. No need is there
- .to tell how through the working of his fell designs,
the while I put my trust in him, I was entrapped,
and then was done to death. And so, that which
thou canst not have learnt, I mean, how cruel was
my death, thou now shalt hear ; and thou shalt
know if he hath wronged me.

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CANTO xxxiii.] 9ant^*0 €mn^pu [22-53

"A tiny chink in the narrow street, which upon
my account beareth the name of Famine — and in
which it needs must be that more be yet made
fast — had already shown me through its opening
many moons, when I slept the sleep of evil that
rent for me the curtain of what was to be. This
man appeared before me as lord and master,
chasing the wolf and the wolf-cubs, on the hill
which shutteth out the view of Lucca from Pisa's
people. He had set Gualandi in front of him,
attended by Sismondi and Lanfranchi, with dogs
lean-ribbed and keen and trained. But short their
run, when the father and his sons seemed to me
to be weary, and I dreamed I saw their sides
ripped open by sharp fangs. When I awoke or
ever the dawn was come, I heard my boys, who
were with me, crying in their sleep, and begging
for bread. Stranger indeed to pity must thou be,
if thou dost feel no sorrow now, thinking on what
my heart foreboded : and if thou dost not weep, at
what art thou wont to weep ? And now they were
awake, and the hour drew nigh at which our food
used to be brought to us, and each was plunged
in doubt by reason of his dream : and down below
I heard the gate of the hateful tower being locked :
wherefore I looked into the faces of my boys,
speaking never a word. I wept not : so stony had
my heart become: they wept; and my sweet
child Anselmo said : ' Father, thou gazest so :
what aileth thee ?' But never a tear I shed, nor
answered all that day, nor the night following,
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54-82] ^Bll [canto XXXIII.

until another sun dawned on the world. When
a faint ray of light stole into our miserable prison,
and I. beheld in their four faces the image of mine
own, I bit my two hands for very anguish. And
they, thinking I did it because I yearned for food,
straightway stood up, and said : ' Father, it will
be pain far less to us, if thou wilt eat of us : thou
didst clothe us in the raiment of this unhappy
flesh, and do thou strip it off.' Then did I quiet
myself, that I might not make them sadder. That
day we all were silent, and the next. Ah ! stony-
bosomed earth, wherefore didst thou not open?
When we had reached the fourth day, Gaddo
flung himself full length before my feet, saying :
' My Father, why dost thou refuse to help me ?'
And at my feet he died : and as thou seest me
before thee, so, one by one, I saw the three drop
down before mine eyes, between the fifth day and
the sixth; whereupon I betook me, with eyes
already sightless, to groping over each of them :
and for three days I called them by their names,
when they were dead : then hunger proved more
powerful than grief."

When he spake these words, with eyes askance
again he fell upon the wretched head with his
teeth, which in their strength were driven to the
bone, as though they had been a dog's.

Ah, Pisa ! stumbling-block to them that dwell

in the fair land where si is hsped ; since they that

are beside thee tarry in wreaking punishment

upon thee, let Capraia and Gorgona leave their

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CANTO XXXIII.] ^axttti'a (tmntt^ [83-113

place, and pile a barrier before the Arno's mouth,
that it may choke beneath its waters every soul
within thee. For though Count Ugolino had the
name of having treacherously rent thy castles
away from thee, thou hadst no right to put his
sons to torture of such kind. Their tender years,
new Thebes, made Uguccione and Brigata guilt-
less, and the other twain whose names my song
hath ere while told.

We passed along, to where, in its stern embrace,
the frost enfoldeth another people, not turned to
earth, but all bent backwards. Weeping itself
there hindereth them from weeping; and the tears
finding a barrier at the eyes, turn inward to make
the agony of suffocation bitterer: for the first
teardrops gather into a cluster, and, like vizors
of crystal, they fill up all the hollow beneath the
eyebrows. And although all power of feeling had
through the cold been forced from out my face, as
from deadened flesh, I fancied now I felt some
breeze : wherefore I said : '* Master, who causeth
this to move? Is not all heat exhausted down
here ?" Whereupon he said to me : " Thou shalt
be over-soon where thine eye will make answer to
thee concerning it, seeing the cause which maketh
the blast descend."

And one of the unhappy creatures in the icy
crust cried out to us : " O souls, so dead to pity
that the last place hath been allotted unto you,
lift up for me the hardened veil upon my face,
that I may rid me for a little while of the sorrow
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1 13-142] ^tll [canto XXXIII.

that gathereth at my heart, or ever the tears are
frozen up again." Wherefore I answered him :
" If thou wouldst have me succour thee, say who
thou art, and if I do not set thee free, may it be
mine to go down to the lowest depth."

Then made he answer : " I am the Friar
Alberigo; I am he of the fruits of the deadly
garden, who here get dates for figs." " Ah !"
I said to him, *' art thou too dead ?" And he
made answer to me : ** How my body fareth in
the world above, I have no knowledge. This
privilege this Ptolomaea hath, that many a time
the soul doth fall down here or ever Atropos
giveth the signal to depart. And that thou
mayest with greater willingness remove the glassy
tears from off my face, know that the moment
that the soul is guilty of betrayal — as I was — the
body is snatched from her control by a demon,
who ever after ruleth it until its round of time is
all accomplished. Headlong she sinketh into a pit
fashioned as these are ; and peradventure there is
still seen on earth the body of the shade which
wintereth behind me yonder. This thou needs
must know, if thou art but now come down ; it is
Ser Branca d' Oria, and many a year hath passed
since he was thus confined."

" I do believe," I said to him, ** that thou art
fooling me ; for Branca d' Oria is not dead at all,
and he doth eat, and drink, and sleep, and clothe
himself with raiment."

" In the gorge of the Malebranche above," he
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CANTO XXXIII.] ^eixtt^^B (S^mnttfu [143-157

said, ''where the clammy pitch is seething,
Michael Zanche had not yet come, when yonder
one left a deyil in his place in his own body, and
in a kinsman's too, who joined him in the doing
of his treachery. But now put forth thy hand
towards me; open mine eyes." And I did not
open them for him ; and it was courtesy to be un-
gracious to him.

Ah, ye of Genoa ! men that dwell apart from all
morality, filled full of every viciousness, how come
ye not to be scattered from off the earth ? For
with the vilest spirit of Romagna, one such, your
citizen, I found, whose soul, for what he wrought,
is even now bathed in Cocytus, albeit his body
seemeth still to be alive on earth.

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CANTO XXXIV.

HE banners of Hell's King come forth
towards us, so look in front of thee,"
my Master said, " if haply thou
mayest see him."

As, when a thick mist is blowing,
or when our atmosphere is darkening into night,
a mill turned by the wind appeareth from afar :
such a structure at that moment did I seem to
behold : and because of the blast I crouched be-
hind my Guide ; for other shelter was there none.
I was already come (and it is with fear I set it
down in verse) to where the spirits were wholly
covered, and showed through like to a straw in
crystal. Some were in lying posture ; some were
erect ; one on his head, another on his heels ;
another, like a bow, bending face to feet.

When we had made our way so far, that it
pleased my Master to show me the monster that
wore erewhile the beauteous countenance, he
moved him forward from me, and made me halt,
saying : " Lo Dis ! and lo the place where it
behoveth thee to arm thyself with courage."
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l^atttie'0 €vimttfu [22-49

eader, how numbed with cold and
me — I write it not, for no words
tell it. I did not die, neither did
)ethink thee then, if it so be that
spark of understanding, to what
)rought, bereft of both alike,
lonarch of the realm of lamenta-
:east-high from out the ice ; and
ible a giant, than do giants even
canst thou see how huge that
match a part so fashioned. If
fair as he is hideous now, and
^s against his Maker, well may all
1 have its beginning. Oh ! what
did it seem to me, when I beheld
is head ! In front was one, and
f the other two that were united
the midmost point between his
me together at the crown of his
e right appeared to me to be
d yellow; that on the left was
I, as they that come from where
1 cataracts.* From under each
)rth two great pinions, of a size
winged thing; sea-sails I never
gathers they had none, but they

"De Republica," vi. i8, "Sicut ubi Nilus
a nominantur, praecipitat ex altissimis

issages in the " Comedy " which show
niliar with that portion of the "De
the ** Dream of Scipio."

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49-77] ^^^^ [canto XXXIV.

were fashioned like a bat's ; and these he flapped
so violently, that from them there went forth three
winds, wherewith Cocytus was wholly turned to
ice. From six eyes wept he, and down three chins
trickled the tears and bloody foam. In every
mouth he crushed a sinner with his teeth, as it
were in a masher ; so that he thus kept three of
them in agony. To him who was in front, the
gnawing was as naught, compared with the
mangling, for now and then his back was left
entirely peeled of skin.

"The soul up there, that endureth mightier
torture," my Master said, " is Judas Iscariot,
that hath his head within and plieth his legs
without. Of the other twain, whose heads are
down, Brutus is he that hangeth from the swarthy
jowl: behold how he is writhing, and uttereth
never a word. The other one is Cassius, he that
seemeth so puissant of limb. But night is coming
up again : and it is now time to go ; for we have
seen the whole."

As it liked him, I clasped him round the neck ;
and he took note of time and place, and when the
wings were opened wide enough, he clung fast to
the shaggy flanks. From shag to shag then made
he his way downward, between the matted hair
and the ice-crusted walls. When we were come to
where the *thigh turneth just above the swelling

* Compare Homer, Iliad v. 305, kot ioxiov lv9a re finp^Q
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CANTO XXXIV.] I?anlit*» Crnn^trn [77-105

of the hips, my Guide, with labour and solicitude,
brought his head round to where he had his feet,
and laid hold on the hair, as one that cHmbeth,
so that I fancied we were turning again towards
Helh "CHng close," my Master said, panting
like one sore spent, "for by such steps as these
we needs must make our way from evil so ex-
treme." Then passed he out by the cleft of a
rock, and set me sitting on the edge; then towards
me turned his cautious footsteps.

I lifted up mine eyes, and thought to look on
Lucifer as I had left him, and saw him with his
legs held high in air. And if in such a moment
I was spent with toiling, let those dull-witted
mortals judge, who cannot comprehend what was
the point which I had passed.

" Rise up," my Master said, ** upon thy feet :
the way is long, and the road is beset with
difficulty; the sun, too, is returning towards the
middle tierce."

palace chamber was the place where we had
but a dungeon of nature's making, with
i floor, and lacking light,
aster, or ever I betake me from the abyss,""
when I was standing, ''speak with me a
to rid me of misapprehension. Where is
e ? And he yonder, how cqmeth he to be
us upside down ? And how is it that the
1 such short space hath accomplished his
jy from eve to morning?"
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106-134] ^^ll [canto XXXIV.

And he made answer to me : " Thou dreamest
that thou art still beyond the central point, where
I laid hold upon the hair of the foul worm that
boreth through the world. Thou wast beyond it
only what time I was descending. When I turned
me round, thou didst o'erpass the spot to which
from every quarter weights are drawn : and now
thou art beneath the hemisphere which is over
against that which spreadeth its canopy above the
great dry land, beneath whose topmost point was
done to death the Man who was born and lived
unknowing sin. Thou hast thy feet upon the
smallest sphere, the same which formeth the
other face of Judas' circle. Here it is morn,
when it is evening yonder : and he that made a
ladder for us with his hair, is fixed even as he was
before. Here fell he down from Heaven: and
the earth which here was erewhile prominent,
cloaked itself with the sea in dread of him, and
made its way unto our hemisphere; and per-
adventure to escape from him, the land which is
apparent on our side left here a hollow space, and
rose aloft. Deep down there is a place, as far
removed from Beelzebub as the grave-Hke chasm
doth extend, unknown by sight, but only by the
streamlet's sound that descendeth there, through
the stony mouth which it hath worn in the wind-
ings of its gently sloping course,"

My Guide and I went in by that darksome way
that we might reach the world of light again ;
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CANTO XXXIV.] 9ante^0 QTmn^tiii ' [135139

and unconcerned for any thought of rest, we went
aloft, he first and I behind, so high that, through
a rounded chink, I could behold the beauteous
gems which Heaven weareth ; and thence came
we forth to look once more upon the stars.

, Paternoster Row, London.

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